What is Dusting Attack and How Does It Happen?

A dusting attack is an attack by a trace amount of crypto called dust on thousands of wallet addresses.
The Dusting attack is an activity that attempts to disrupt the privacy of cryptocurrency users by sending small amounts of money to wallets.
Since transactions on the blockchain are open source, attackers can access their wallet addresses through written codes.
Attackers know that most cryptocurrency users don’t notice small changes in their balances, so they are constantly monitoring the outflow of these small amounts.
They then use social engineering to discover users’ identity and often blackmail them.
In fact, the real threat of dusting attack on users can be qualified as phishing.

How to Protect Against Dusting?

There are several methods you can use to protect yourself from dusting attacks.
First, you can use an “HD” wallet that generates a new address for every transaction you make.
Some wallets show UTXOs that you can mark as expenses.
These small amounts stay in your wallet and cannot be tracked if you don’t use them. Moreover, many exchanges offer the option to convert to dust and you can easily convert the dust in the account.