Belarusian President Has Passport Data Stolen by NFT Hackers

Hackers calling themselves the Belarusian Cyber Partisans have stolen passport data purportedly belonging to Alexander Lukashenko, the country’s president, and minted a non-fungible token (NFT) of it.

In a Twitter thread, the Cyber Partisans said, “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 #lukashenka where he’s behind the bars. Make it happen sooner while he’s still alive”

The group says it plans to fight “bloody regimes in Minsk and Moscow.”

In the past, the gang had taken credit for a number of well-known cyberattacks, including one against the Belarusian railway system. 

Belarusian collective founded in 2020

According to the Washington Post, the organization was established in Sept 2020 in response to the protests that followed Belarus’ contested presidential election.

The collective is one of three anti-government resistance movements that make up the “Suprativ” collective comprising tech professionals. 

Meanwhile, under the Scorching Heat campaign last year, it is alleged that the group obtained a wide range of government data by hacking the Belarus passport system and traffic police database.

Apart from the Belarusian passports, the collective claims that they provide passports of other “traitors” of the people of Belarus and Ukraine. 

They also claimed that all funds from the NFT sale will be used to support their work in targeting the regimes in Minsk and Moscow.

At the peak of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the latter had used crypto to support the country. It was reported that the beleaguered Ukrainian government spent $54 million in cryptocurrency donations on military and medical supplies.

OpenSea may ignite censorship debate

As the internet transforms from Web2 to Web3, it is supposed to have an innate feature to be resistant to censorship. However, the debate is more nuanced. The hacking group claims OpenSea delisted their NFT collection.

Dr. Gavin Wood, the founder of the Web3 Foundation and Polkadot blockchain network,  underlined, “We may have to go through one or two hype cycles before the most important elements of the technology breakthrough.”