Belarusian hackers claim to have every citizen’s passport info, including President Alexander Lukashenko’s, allowing them to mint an NFT with his details.
The Belarusian Cyber Partisans, a gang of hackers, have been attempting to sell a nonfungible token (NFT) with what they claim to be Alexander Lukashenko’s passport information.
The action, according to the Belarusian Cyber Partisans, is a component of a grassroots funding drive to oppose “bloody governments in Minsk and Moscow.”
The group’s members assert to have gained access to a government database containing every citizen of Belarus’ passport information, enabling them to introduce the Belarisuan Passports NFT collection, which includes a digital passport purported to include real information about Lukashenko.
Due to a misspelling of “Aleksandr” and a typographical error in the word “Republic” on the top page, some observers have claimed that the information on the digital passport is false.
On Tuesday, on the occasion of Lukashenko’s birthday, the hackers said they tried to sell the NFT collection on the OpenSea market. However, they claimed that the deal was swiftly terminated and that they are currently considering other options:
“The dictator has a birthday today — help us ruin it for him! Get our work of art today. A special offer— a New Belarus passport for Lukashenko where he’s behind the bars.”
According to a representative for OpenSea, Gizmodo, the project violated rules relating to “doxxing and revealing personal identifying information about another person without their consent.”
The Belarusian Cyber Partisans also disclosed that they intended to sell NFTs containing the passport data of other senior government figures with ties to Lukashenko.
“We also offer passports of his closest allies and traitors of the people of #Belarus and #Ukraine. All the funds will go to support our work in hitting bloody regimes in #minsk & #moscow,” the group wrote.
Quite a controversial person, Lukashenko has been in charge of Belarus since its founding in 1994. Organize Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, among others, has accused him of “rigging elections, torturing critics, and arresting and beating protesters” in the past, despite the fact that he was elected on the promise of outlawing corruption.
The hacktivists claim to be adamantly opposed to Lukashenko’s allegedly corrupt government. The organization has also taken issue with Lukashenko for his support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The “Resistance Movement of Belarus” is a larger fundraising initiative that The Belarusian Cyber Partisans started in February with the intention of eventually ousting Lukashenko using its own self-defense forces. Donations to the cause are mostly made through digital currencies like Bitcoin (BTC).
“We, the free citizens of Belarus, refuse to submit to this state and form the self-defence, as a people’ response to the unleashed terror. Our ultimate goal is the elimination of the dictatorial regime,” the group wrote.
