Dusting Attacks
What are dusting attacks in cryptocurrency?
What are Dusting Attacks, And How Do They Work?
Dusting Attack is a form of cybercrime used by crypto scammers to identify victims based on transaction history. Scammers will send a negligible amount of cryptocurrency to a large number of random wallet addresses in order to track a user’s transactions and link these addresses to a particular user or wallet. Yes, this sum of money is so small that it is almost insignificant — hence the name “DUST”.
After successfully “dusting” the victim’s wallet addresses, scammers will conduct an analysis via blockchain in order to obtain important information such as the victim’s identity and those in the victim’s financial network. This will ultimately compromise their privacy and security.
How Do Criminals Deanonymize Their Victims?
Instead of the Account-balance model employed by commercial banks and Ethereum, criminals take advantage of Bitcoin’s UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) model, which allows trackers to follow every single Bitcoin input/output from the start to the end of a specific UTXO set. More information on the UTXO model can be found here.
One of the most common algorithms used under the UTXO model is to include the fewest unspent coins in the transaction first. When a transaction occurs, the system will select a number of UTXOs in ascending order. As a result, the dust amount will be included in any subsequent on-chain transactions made by the wallet owner since it is so small.
Thus, scammers can track down the UTXO set and deanonymize not only the victim but also a network of all stakeholders, i.e. the people or organizations to whom the victim transfers money. Scammers can use this information in conjunction with other threatening tactics, jeopardizing the victim’s privacy.
How Small Are the Dust Transactions?
Dust transactions are usually from 1,000 to 5,000 satoshis.
*Satoshi is the smallest unit of Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Learn more about Satoshi here.
Why Does the Dusting Attack Occur In the First Place?
Scammers know that in the world of cryptocurrency, most wallet users ignore small transactions and do not double-check where those transactions originated. They may, for example, misinterpret small transactions as gas fees or other irrelevant transactions. It then becomes the perfect gap for scammers to prey on gullible victims.
Protecting Yourself From Dusting Attacks
The simplest way to protect yourself from dusting attacks is to be wary of any unsolicited transactions that appear in your wallet. You can also use a VPN to encrypt your internet connection and hide your IP address or enable the two-factor authentication feature. Also, remember to keep your software up-to-date. This can help protect against known vulnerabilities.
