Hackers are trying to sell NFT of the Belarusian leader’s supposed stolen passport
A group of hacktivists called the Belarusian Cyber Partisans have attempted to sell a non-fungible token (NFT) with the alleged passport information of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.
The Belarusian cyber partisans say the move is part of a grassroots fundraising campaign to fight “bloody regimes in Minsk and Moscow”.
Its members claim to have hacked into a government database that holds the passport information of all Belarusian citizens, allowing them to launch an NFT collection called “Belarisuan Passports”, which includes a digital passport that supposedly contains Lukashenko’s actual information.
1/3 For the first time in human history a #hacktivist collectively obtained passport information for ALL of the country’s citizens. Now we offer you an opportunity to become part of this history. Get a unique digital version of #lukashenka fit as #NFT pic.twitter.com/RxdWpBqA8f
— Belarusian Cyber-Partisans (@cpartisans) 30 August 2022
Some observers have accused the information on the digital passport of being fake, due to a typo on the front of the world’s “Republic” and a misspelling of “Aleksandr.”
The hackers on Twitter said they attempted to sell the NFT collection on Lukashenko’s birthday on August 30 via the OpenSea market, but stated that the sale was immediately shut down, and are now looking at other options.
“The Dictator’s birthday is today – help us ruin it for him!” Get our artwork today. A special offer – a new Belarusian passport for Lukashenko where he is behind bars.”
An OpenSea spokesperson told Gizmodo that the project violated the company’s rules related to “doxxing and disclosing personally identifiable information about another person without their consent.”
The Belarusian cyber partisans also revealed that they want to sell NFTs containing the passport information of other government officials closely linked to Lukashenko.
“We also offer passports to his closest allies and traitors to the people of #Belarus and #Ukraine. All funds will go to support our work to target bloody regimes in #Minsk and #Moscow,” the group wrote.
A rather controversial figure, Lukashenko has been at the helm of Belarus since the nation’s inception in 1994. Despite being elected on the premise of rooting out corruption, he has been described by the likes of the Organize Crime and Corruption Reporting Project as having “rigging elections, torturing critics and arresting and beating protesters” in the past.
The hacktivists say they are strongly opposed to what they feel is a corrupt regime under Lukashenko, who has also angered the group through his support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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In February, The Belarusian Cyber Partisans launched a broader fundraising campaign called the “Resistance Movement of Belarus”, which aims to eventually usurp power from Lukashenko via its own self-defense forces. The campaign primarily takes donations through crypto-assets such as Bitcoin (BTC).
“We, the free citizens of Belarus, refuse to submit to this state and form self-defense, as a people’s response to the unleashed terror. Our ultimate goal is to eliminate the dictatorial regime,” the group wrote.
