Belarusian Cyber Partisans Attempt to Sell NFT Passport Info of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko
JAKARTA - A group of hackers called Belarusian Cyber Partisans have attempted to sell non-exchangeable tokens (NFTs) displaying passport info of purported Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko.
As reported by Cointelegraph, Belarusian Cyber Partisans said the move was part of a grassroots fundraising campaign to fight the "bloody regimes in Minsk and Moscow."
The members claim to have hacked a Belarusian government database that has the passport info of every Belarusian citizen, allowing them to launch an NFT collection called Belarisuan Passport, which includes a digital passport that is supposed to display Lukashenko's actual information.
For the first time in human history, the #hacktivist collective obtained passport info from all citizens. Now we offer you the opportunity to be a part of this history . Get unique digital version of #lukashenka passport as #NFT https://t.co/gOlWdoUehi pic.twitter.com/RxdWpBqA8f
— Belarusian Cyber-Partisans (@cpartisans) August 30, 2022
Some observers have accused the info on the digital passport to be fake, due to a typo on the front page of the word "Republic" and a misspelling of "Aleksandr."
Hackers on Twitter said they were trying to sell the NFT collection on Lukashenko's birthday on Tuesday 30 August, via the OpenSea marketplace. However, they stated that the sale was closing soon, and were now looking into other options.
“It's the dictator's birthday today – help us destroy him for him! Get our art today. Special offer— New Belarusian passport for Lukashenko where he is behind bars.”
An OpenSea spokesperson told Gizmodo that the project violates company rules relating to "doxxing and disclosing personally identifiable information about others without their consent."
Belarusian Cyber Partisans also revealed that they wanted to sell NFTs which featured passport info of other government officials closely related to Lukashenko.
“We also offer the passports of his closest ally and traitor to the people of #Belarus and #Ukraine. All funds will be used to support our work in hitting the bloody regime in #minsk & #moscow," the group wrote.
VOIR éGALEMENT:
Lukashenko is a controversial figure and has led Belarus since the country's founding in 1994. Although elected on the grounds of fighting corruption, he has been described by the public as possessing the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project as well as “rigging elections, torturing critics, and arresting and beating protesters” in the past.
The hackers stated that they were strongly opposed to what they perceived as a corrupt regime under Lukashenko, who also irritated the group through its support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In February, Belarusian Cyber Partisans also launched a broader fundraising campaign called the “Belarus Resistance Movement,” which aims to wrest power from Lukashenko through self-defense forces. This campaign mainly takes donations through crypto assets such as Bitcoin (BTC).
“We, the free citizens of Belarus, refuse to submit to this country and form self-defense, as the people's response to the terror unleashed. Our main goal is the abolition of dictatorial regimes,” the group wrote, as quoted by Cointelegraph.