Introduction
Blockchain technology has been revolutionary since its inception, especially for the cryptocurrency sector, which has seen increased adoption over the years despite several attacks by the mainstream financial sector. One of the major reasons why cryptocurrency has maintained its relevance is because it gives individuals a sense of privacy, security, and control over their assets.
However, a technique known as Dust Attack is famous for being employed by both criminals (hackers) and security agencies to de-anonymize the identity of individuals through their public addresses for reasons that are usually harmful to the victim.
In this article, we will discuss what Dusting Attacks are and how the new Roqqu Send Feature can help protect you against Dusting Attacks.
WHAT IS A DUST?
In crypto terms, Dust is a very small amount of crypto, usually less than the gas fee. Dust is so small that you don’t notice it.
Most active traders have dust in their wallets. If, after making a transaction in your wallet and you find some tiny fragments left in your wallet, that is known as crypto dust.
For instance, if you have 0.0000038 BTC in your wallet, that is a bitcoin dust because you can’t do anything with it.
Crypto dust does not necessarily pose any threat except that bad actors can use anything or medium to carry out their illicit activities. Using crypto dust to carry out illegal activities is a dust attack.
Dusting is not only used by bad actors; security agencies can also track and de-anonymize a specific wallet address holder.
Companies can use it to send promotional messages as an alternative to traditional mailshots.
WHAT IS A DUSTING ATTACK?
A dusting attack is a process of sending a tiny amount of cryptocurrency, known as dust, to multiple addresses in order to de-anonymize the owners of the addresses or carry out hack activities. Just like scattering dust in the air, that’s how the perpetrators of this attack scatter fragments of cryptocurrencies on the blockchain. This can be done to specific wallets or random wallets collected online, depending on the purpose of the attack.
The two main reasons why perpetrators use Dusting Attack
1. TO STEAL YOUR CRYPTOCURRENCY
Don’t get it twisted; your cryptocurrency can’t be stolen from your wallet directly through a dusting alone. However, hackers combine dusting attacks with several other techniques that’ll enable them to drain your wallet or trick you into sending your cryptocurrency to their own wallet addresses. Let’s look at some of the techniques they use
- Phishing: Dust attacks may sometimes be used for phishing. Attackers can send dust with a message or a link to lure recipients into clicking on malicious websites or giving away sensitive information. That will enable the hacker to steal your digital assets from your wallet.
A typical example is a dusting attack that happened sometime in 2020 on the Binance Chain, where the attackers sent tiny BNB tokens to multiple addresses with a transaction memo that contained a malicious link. With the aid of some sophisticated wallet drainers, any individual who clicks this malicious link will be susceptible to potential loss of funds.
- Transaction Spamming: By sending a tiny amount of cryptocurrency to multiple addresses. Most of the victims will barely notice a transaction occurred. In this case, the attacker hopes to trick some of the users who don’t do due diligence nor apply standard practices to mistakenly copy the wrong address (the hacker’s address) as the recipient address and eventually send funds to the hacker instead of the intended recipient.
This is an overview of a dusting attack on Roqqu’s XRP hot wallet
2. TO COMPROMISE YOUR PRIVACY
This is another major reason for most Dusting Attacks; to de-anonymize blockchain-based wallets. When the perpetrator sends dust to users’ wallets, most of the time, they don’t even notice, and they go ahead to transact with that address; the perpetrator then traces the users down to their various Crypto Exchanges that have their respective personal data. They can then employ other hacking techniques to obtain their personal data from the exchanges. By doing this, they have successfully de-anonymized the owner of the wallet address.
It can also be used to track the movement of funds and link different addresses belonging to the same user. This information could be used for further attacks or to gain insights into the financial activities of targeted individuals or entities.
Asides from hackers, security agencies also use this technique to track down an individual who has carried out a scam activity on the blockchain, thinking he/she is entirely anonymous.
Using dusting attacks to de-anonymize blockchain-based wallets is a common practice.
How Roqqu protects its users from losing their cryptocurrency to a dusting attack scheme
No one can prevent dusting attacks on their wallets, as no one can stop anyone from sending coins to their address. However, precautionary measures can be implemented to protect you from scams that accompany dust attacks.
Here are some amazing features on Roqqu that help protect you from losing your cryptocurrency to scammers who use this technique
The “Select from Recipient” Feature;
This new send feature came with the Roqqu 2.1 update. This feature suggests existing beneficiaries as recipients when you want to send out a coin, saving you from the errors that arise from going to find an address on the Blockchain Explorer, where you might eventually copy a wrong address that has been spamming your wallet with dust.
The “Username” Send feature;
This feature protects you from attacks that accompany dusting in several ways. First, you don’t have to worry about mistakenly sending funds to an address spamming your wallet with crypto dust, as you are basically sending to a known username.
Secondly, using the Username send feature, you can clear your wallet without leaving any residue (dust). This transaction has no associated gas fee, leaving no room for decimal rounding errors. This will help you track what is left in your wallet effectively and easily spot when the dust has been sent to your wallet.
Concealing Transaction Memo;
Scammers use dusting attacks to send malicious links to users. These links are accompanied by promising messages intended to lure users into clicking them and eventually scam them through these malicious links.
Roqqu, however, doesn’t show its users the transaction memo when they receive any token. This automatically protects the users from malicious links sent through a dusting attack.
Conclusion
Dust attacks can be used by hackers, security agencies, or any other party for peculiar reasons known to them. On its own, a dusting attack can’t be used to steal your cryptocurrency. Still, it can be combined with other hacking techniques to trick you into becoming a scam victim and eventually lose your assets.
It can also be used to de-anonymize your identity on the blockchain by tracking your transactions down to a centralized exchange.
Roqqu has built its platform to protect users from security and privacy breaches, including dust attacks.
Go to the official website, www.roqqu.com, to transact safely with Roqqu.
