If you have suddenly started receiving small amount of btc into your account. Don't be happy, you could be a victim of a dusting attack. This was recently reported by Binance. Dusting attack are in rise, what was only associated with bitcoin before, not have moved on to other cryptocurrencies like LTC, BNB etc.
What is dusting attack?
Dust refers to a tiny amount of coins or tokens – an amount that is so small that most users don't even notice. Taking Bitcoin as an example, the smallest unit of BTC is 1 satoshi (0.00000001 BTC), so we may use the term dust to refer to a couple of hundreds of satoshis.
Within cryptocurrency exchanges, dust is also the name given to tiny amounts of coins that "get stuck" on users' accounts after trading orders are executed. Dust balances are not tradeable, but BINANCE users are able to convert them to BNB.
Binance reported that malicious actors have realized that cryptocurrency users don't pay much attention to these tiny amounts showing up in their wallet addresses. So they begin "dusting" a large number of addresses by sending a few satoshis to them (i.e., a small amount of LTC, BTC or other cryptocurrencies). After dusting different addresses, the next step of a dusting attack involves a combined analysis of those addresses in an attempt to identify which ones belong to the same crypto wallet.
The goal is to eventually link the dusted addresses and wallets to their respective companies or individuals. If successful, the attackers may use this knowledge against their targets, either through elaborated phishing attacks or cyber-extortion threats.
As mentioned in the beginning, dust attacks were initially performed on the Bitcoin network, but they are also happening with Litecoin, BNB, and other cryptocurrencies. This is possible because most cryptocurrencies are running on top of a traceable and public blockchain.
When you hold cryptocurrencies in a personal wallet, you are acting as your own bank. There is nothing you can do if your wallet gets hacked or your lose your private keys.
If you suspect you are being targeted with a dust attack, immediately bring it to the attention of your wallet support and move your funds to a safe place.
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