North Korean hackers may be behind malware distributed by cryptocurrrency trading platform-Computerfanfield

A new macOS malware packaged by a cryptocurrency trading platform has been uncovered by security researchers. The malware is believed to be the work of notorious North Korean hacking group Lazarus.

Security researcher Dinesh Devadoss tweeted their discovery of the malware yesterday. A detailed analysis of the malware can be read here .

The malware masquerades as a cryptocurrency arbitrage platform, a service typically used to take advantage of price discrepancies across other digital asset exchanges.

According to researchers, the malware is designed to retrieve a payload from a remote server and then run it in the infected machine’s memory.

Bleeping Computer reports that the malware goes virtually undetected by VirusTotal .

Researchers also say that there are some “clear overlaps” with another malware called AppleJeus distributed by Lazarus.

If you haven’t heard that name before, where have you been? Lazarus are nortorious for launching high value attacks going after cryptocurrency hoards.

Last year, Hard Fork reported that the hacking group had stolen more than $570 million worth of cryptocurrency across five attacks.

The malicious package, named UnionCryptoTrader was hosted on the fake arbitrage platform’s website.

The malware is programmed to run on each system reboot and collect information about the system’s serial number and OS version.

It might sound worrisome, however, the remote command and control server isn’t responding with a malicious payload. Either something is on the way, or the hacking group responsible for this malware is testing its techniques for future attacks.

As Bleeping Computer points out, exectuing a file in memory is a rare strategy for macOS -based systems and it’s just starting to gain popularity.

Luckily, this one has been spotted before anything too nefarious has happened. Update your malware definitions, stat!

H/T – Bleeping Computer

Trump’s ignorance couldn’t kill Bitcoin in Q3 — here’s what happened

Bitcoin , undoubtedly the world’s most famous cryptocurrency , has continuously made headlines throughout the year.

Despite noticeable fluctuations in price , the cryptocurrency maintained relative health, with its market capitalization vastly surpassing $148 billion at the writing of writing .

We’ve taken a closer look at the digital currency ‘s performance , focusing specifically on its price movements during Q3 2019.

But, first, let’s briefly recap Bitcoin ‘s performance during the first six months of the year.

Q1 recap

Although notorious for its volatility, Bitcoin was relatively stable during Q1 2019.

It started the year at $3,717 and a brief 9 percent increase in its trading price saw it surpass the $4,000 barrier during the first week of January.

It goes without saying that price rallies are not uncommon at the start of a new year, but it’s worth noting that this particularly increase wasn’t anything special by Bitcoin ’ s standards.

The cryptocurrency ’s upward movement was short-lived, though. Within a month, Bitcoin ’s trading values dropped to a low of $3,358 on February 7.

From then on, the digital currency demonstrated some relative stability. It experienced one notable drop at the end of February where its trading price fell 8 percent from $4,106 – its highest price this quarter – to $3,784 over a 24-hour period.

By March, BTC had nearly equaled its quarter high and closed trading at $4,092, representing a modest 10 percent growth for the quarter .

Q2 recap

Moving on, the second quarter of 2019 proved to be much more fruitful for investors and hodlers.

Bitcoin began the quarter on April 1 at $4,125, and it certainly didn’t spend any time joking around as this marked the start of a three-month- long rally.

Over Q2, Bitcoin set numerous records for reaching prices that haven’t been seen over the past 12 months.

Bitcoin’s Q3 performance

Bitcoin opened July slightly above the $10,000 mark, hitting $10,442.80 on the first day of the month. It went on to surpass $11,000 within the first two weeks of the quarter .

The digital currency dropped by 11.4 percent, going from $10,786.24 on July, 15 to $9,552.68 July 16. We saw the month’s low on July 27, when Bitcoin traded for $9,451.10 apiece.

It then began a swift recovery, increasing by under $100 in value over three days, and reaching $9,518.69 on July 30.

The quarter ‘s highest value was hit in early August, when the digital currency surpassed $11,000, hitting $11,815.04 on August 7.

However, a week later, on August 14, Bitcoin ’s trading price decreased by 14 percent, stabilizing at $10,137.88.

The month of August ended with Bitcoin trading well below $10,000, and costing just $9,462.50 on August, 31.

Bitcoin started trading at $9,603.10 on September 1, increasing by 7 percent and hitting $10,363.03 the following day.

The digital currency hovered around the $10,000 mark for most of the month, until it dropped to $9931.40 on September 21 and continued to plummet over the next three days, leaving it sitting at $8,549.93 on September 24.

Bitcoin ‘s lowest value for Q3 was reached on September 29 when it was trading $7,994.55.

Q3 2018 vs Q3 2019

Overall, Q3 2019 saw Bitcoin make higher gains than during the same time period last year.

Bitcoin performed better in July 2019, than it did in 2018 when the month’s high was $8,194.58. In July this year, as we’ve just seen, the cryptocurrency was trading in between $9,000-$10,000.

In August 2018, Bitcoin ‘s price hovered around $7,000-$8,000, meaning traders had to spend several thousand dollars more to purchase the same amount of the cryptocurrency in August this year.

The cryptocurrency was trading at $6,741.26 on September 1, 2018 — meaning the cryptocurrency was 29 percent cheaper than it was on September 1, 2019.

Major events during Q3 2019

On July 12, US President Donald Trump , known for his complicated relationship with technology and his incessant need to share his ill-advised thoughts with the world, admitted he wasn’t a fan of cryptocurrency . Trump said cryptocurrencies were not money and took issue with their highly volatile value “based on thin air,” as well as their potential to facilitate criminal activity .

Then, on August 1, we all woke up to the news that more than 85 percent of Bitcoin’s total supply had been mined.

On August 12, New Zealand‘s tax authorities deemed it legal for companies to pay its employees in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies . Companies will also be able to deduct income taxes using current PAYE (pay as you earn) frameworks under the Income Tax Act 2007.

A cryptocurrency whale made headlines after moving a groin-thumping Bitcoin fortune worth $468.5 million on July 29.

In late September, a report suggested that Venezuela ‘s central bank may have Ethereum and Bitcoin but had little idea what to do with them.

Also in September, UK police raised £300,000 ($369,000) through the auction of criminally-seized Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies , achieving over market value.

Looking ahead

While it’s impossible to predict Bitcoin ‘s future price movements, its performance over the month of October has seen relatively little volatility, with its value so far staying within $8,000-$7,000.

However, I hope we don’t see a repeat of last year’s Q4 slump when Bitcoin was struggling to move beyond $4,000 during the months of November and December.

Satoshi Nakaboto: ‘Virgin Galactic chair says you should have 1% of your assets in Bitcoin’

Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day.

Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Machiavelli used to say: Money makes the world go around!

Bitcoin price

We closed the day, March 01 2020, at a price of $8,562. That’s a minor 0.43 percent decline in 24 hours, or -$37.30. It was the lowest closing price in thirty-five days.

We’re still 57 percent below Bitcoin’s all-time high of $20,089 (December 17 2017).

Bitcoin market cap

Bitcoin’s market cap ended the day at $156,238,987,740. It now commands 65 percent of the total crypto market.

Bitcoin volume

Yesterday’s volume of $35,349,164,300 was the lowest in twenty-one days, 84 percent above last year’s average, and 29 percent below last year’s high. That means that yesterday, the Bitcoin network shifted the equivalent of 683 tons of gold.

Bitcoin transactions

A total of 309,672 transactions were conducted yesterday, which is 4 percent below last year’s average and 31 percent below last year’s high.

Bitcoin transaction fee

Yesterday’s average transaction fee concerned $0.13. That’s $3.58 below last year’s high of $3.71.

Bitcoin distribution by address

As of now, there are 12,610 Bitcoin millionaires, or addresses containing more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin.

Furthermore, the top 10 Bitcoin addresses house 5.8 percent of the total supply, the top 100 14.9 percent, and the top 1000 34.7 percent.

Company with a market cap closest to Bitcoin

With a market capitalization of $158 Billion, Oracle has a market capitalization most similar to that of Bitcoin at the moment.

Bitcoin’s path towards $1 million

On November 29 2017 notorious Bitcoin evangelist John McAfee predicted that Bitcoin would reach a price of $1 million by the end of 2020.

He even promised to eat his own dick if it doesn’t. Unfortunately for him it’s 96.2 percent behind being on track. Bitcoin’s price should have been $229,253 by now, according to dickline.info.

Bitcoin Energy Consumption

Bitcoin used an estimated 213 million kilowatt hour of electricity yesterday. On a yearly basis that would amount to 78 terawatt hour. That’s the equivalent of Chile’s energy consumption or 7 million US households. Bitcoin’s energy consumption now represents 0.35% of the whole world’s electricity use.

Bitcoin on Twitter

Yesterday 22,847 fresh tweets about Bitcoin were sent out into the world. That’s 23.6 percent above last year’s average. The maximum amount of tweets per day last year about Bitcoin was 75,543.