Dusting attack is a new malicious activity in which hackers or scammers try to break the privacy of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency users by sending very small amounts of coins to people's private wallets. Many Bitcoin experts operate under the assumption that their anonymity is well protected despite attempts to interfere with trading transactions, but unfortunately this is not the case in reality.
dust definition
In cryptocurrency lingo, dust means very small amounts of coins or tokens. This amount is so small that people often ignore it. If we give an example from Bitcoin, the smallest unit is 1 satoshi (0.00000001 BTC) and up to a few hundred satoshis can be called dust.
In other words, dust is an amount that is not even worth sending because it is so much smaller than the transaction fee to be paid. Within cryptocurrency exchanges, dust is also the name given to a very small amount of coins that are “stuck” and cannot be traded.
Most people do not notice the dust in their wallets and do not think about its source. Until recently, it was okay to not pay attention to these small amounts, but with the creation of dusting attacks, unfortunately it is no longer possible to say this.
Dusting attack
Recently, scammers have noticed that Bitcoin users are not paying attention to these small amounts in their wallets and have started dusting a large number of addresses by sending a few satoshi. They then began to track these funds and dusted wallets, linking the addresses, and eventually identifying the people or institutions behind these wallet addresses. While dusting attacks were first carried out with Bitcoin, they later began to occur in other cryptocurrencies that run on public or transparent blockchains.
In late October 2018, the developers of Bitcoin's Samourai wallet announced that some of their users were under a dusting attack. The company sent a tweet warning its users and explaining how they should protect themselves. To protect its users, this wallet now has a real-time alert system for tracking dust, as well as a “Spend” feature that allows users to flag suspicious funds and avoid using them in their transactions.
If a dust is not moved, attackers may not be able to make connections that remove the anonymity of the wallet user or address owner. The Samourai wallet already has the feature of automatically sending notifications for transactions below the 564 satoshi limit, which provides some level of protection.
Bitcoin Nickname
Because Bitcoin is open and decentralized, anyone can create a wallet and join the network without sharing any personal information. Although all Bitcoin transactions are public and visible, it is not always easy to find the person behind each public address or transaction, making Bitcoin somewhat, if not completely, secret.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions between two parties (without any intermediary) are more likely to remain anonymous. It is also important to note that Bitcoin users should only use their wallet addresses once to protect their privacy.
However, most cryptocurrency experts or traders use third-party exchanges, and as a result, by connecting their personal wallets to the exchange wallets, they also connect their personal data. Therefore, if you are interested in cryptocurrency trading, it is very important that you choose a reliable and secure exchange.
In this context, Bitcoin is not actually an anonymous cryptocurrency, although many people believe otherwise. Besides the recent dusting attacks, many companies, research laboratories, and government agencies are also conducting blockchain analysis to de-anonymize the blockchain.
Other privacy and security issues
While it is almost impossible to hack the Bitcoin blockchain, wallets are the weak link in this cryptocurrency chain. Because users don't provide personal information when creating an account, if a hacker can gain access to their coins, they can't prove it happened, and even if they could, it wouldn't do any good.
In fact, trying to track down a Bitcoin theft would be a pointless endeavor for victims. If you keep Bitcoins in your personal wallet that only you have access to, you are your own bank and there is nothing you can do if you lose your keys or your coins are stolen.
The value of privacy increases day by day, not only for those who hide things, but for all of us. And privacy is even more valuable to cryptocurrency traders and investors.
In addition to Dusting and other anonymity attacks, you also need to be wary of other security threats that are rapidly springing up in the cryptocurrency world, such as Cryptojacking, Ransomware, and Phishing. Moreover, you need to install VPN and a reliable anti-virus program on all their devices. You should also encrypt their wallets and store the keys in encrypted folders.