A lot of people in the Bitcoin world will remember the Hacking Team collective, which has made media headlines over the past few months. However, even that collective was hacked, and the person responsible has now resurfaced to send stolen Bitcoin to an autonomous region in Syria.
Hacking Team Hacker Sluices Stolen Bitcoins
The hacker announced this news himself on Twitter earlier today, as he posted a message about sending a 10,000 EUR Bitcoin donation to Rojava, an autonomous Syrian region. He also mentioned how this is “one of the most inspiring revolutionary projects in the world today”. Rather cryptic and strange, and not at all positive news for Bitcoin.
Rojava is one of the most inspiring revolutionary projects in the world today. I just donated 10000€ in bitcoin https://t.co/2ubZctplSy
— Hack Back! (@GammaGroupPR) May 5, 2016
While it remains unclear as to who those funds belongs to, the hacker is confident more funds will be on the way. Whether or not this means he has breached somebody’s wallet, or is using extortion methods of some kind, remains unknown for now. This former Hacking Team hacker is building up quite a reputation, though.
The Rojava project is a rather criticized one, as Turkey feels this region is a haven for PKK members, who are labelled as a terrorist organisation by the US State Department. However, Rojava is not in the same league as ISIS, whom they are officially at war with. That does not make this region a normal and positive region either, albeit it is important to point out the differences.
That being said, people living in the region have turned to crowdfunding so they can feed the local population and purchase farm equipment. Bitcoin is one of the accepted payment methods for their campaign, and the 10,000 EUR donation has in fact been sent to the Rojava Plan address. Keeping in mind how this crowdfunding campaign has received 26,000 EUR in donations so far, the effort by the Hacking Team hacker is quite a big deal.
While some people will undoubtedly see this news as another validation of Bitcoin being used for illicit purposes, the hacker also managed to bring a lot of media coverage to Rojava. Whether or not this will result in additional donations for the project, remains to be seen, but it is quite a statement for sure.
Source: Ars Technica
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