On August 23, 2018, Kaspersky Lab reported that the cybercrime ring known as Lazarus Group had resurfaced with a new malware campaign – dubbed ‘AppleJeus’ by analysts – that aims to steal cryptocurrency using the trojan crypto trading software. “We noticed a growing interest of the Lazarus group in cryptocurrency markets at the beginning of 2017, when Monero mining software was installed on one of their servers by a Lazarus operator. Lazarus Group developed software to target both the Windows and macOS platforms, and the malware works exactly the same on both operating systems. The extension to macOS is a recent and very. AppleJeus is a new malicious operation by the Lazarus Group. It penetrates the network of cryptocurrency exchanges in Asia using a Trojan-infected crytocurrency trading software. The Lazarus Group, a North Korean-based hacker team, have made a new strain of malware called AppleJeus, which is designed to steal cryptocurrency funds. While not a new development in itself, this new strain came with a worrying new feature: it can infect Mac computers as well as Windows.

Like Lazarus rising from the dead, the same-named cybercrime ring from North Korea is back – and this time they are targeting cryptocurrency exchanges using malware designed for both Windows and MacOS reports Kaspersky Lab. On August 23, 2018, Kaspersky Lab reported that the cybercrime ring known as Lazarus Group had resurfaced with a new malware campaign – dubbed ‘AppleJeus’ by analysts – that aims to steal cryptocurrency using the trojan crypto trading software. This marks the first time that the group has deployed MacOS-based malware to breach cryptocurrency exchanges. How It Happened According to the report, an employee of the exchange downloaded a cryptocurrency trading application that had been recommended to the company via email. Upon installing the software, the employee’s computer was infected with the remote access Trojan ‘Fallchill’ – an older tool which the hacking group has begun using again. Unlike previous malware campaigns, however, AppleJeus was not only meant for Windows users, but for MacOS users as well. To ensure that the OS platform was not an obstacle to infecting targets, it seems the attackers went the extra mile and developed malware for other platforms, including for macOS.

A version for Linux is apparently coming soon, according to the website. Kaspersky Lab has called this attack a “wake up call” for MacOS users who labor under the misconception that non-Windows operating systems are impervious to malware infections.