Caution: LockBit develops blackmail software for Apple M1 Mac computer for the first time

CTOnews.com, April 16, LockBit has become one of the largest blackmail software gangs. Although the group focused on Windows, Linux and web hosting, MalwareHunterTeam found that they had developed the first macOS ransomware.

Although it is not yet fully confirmed, this should be the first time a large ransomware gang has targeted Apple devices.

Security analysts believe that LockBit is a Russia-based organization because most of its members speak Russian. LockBit is growing in the area of running ransomware as a service (RaaS), which means the organization allows others to use its ransomware-but at a price.

Judging from the samples given by security analysts, the LockBit ransomware was created for Apple M1 chip Mac computers, named "locker_Apple_M1_64" and a hash value of 3e4bbd21756ae30c24ff7d6942656be024139f8180b7bddd4e5c62a9dfbd8c79.

Security official vx-underground mentioned that the LockBit ransomware for Mac was created in November 2022, but MalwareHunterTeam said they had never found anything about it online until yesterday, indicating that it may not have been released or discovered until now.

MalwareHunterTeam believes that this is the first public alarm about an LockBit attack on an Apple device. As the group develops more RaaS methods, we are likely to see a wave of blackmail attacks on Mac computers in the near future.

Of course, LockBit's ransomware is not only on Apple's M1 platform, but also on x86 and Arm platforms, and CTOnews.com can even see PowerPC-based versions.