Binance Reports About Dusting Attack Made Against Litecoin

By Rishma Banerjee

Binance Bitcoin Exchange reported on Saturday that a “dusting attack” has been made against the fourth-largest altcoin, Litecoin (LTC). The main aim of this attack was to compromise user privacy data.
The tweet by which they alarmed the crypto world, read,

“Approximately 5 hours ago there was a large-scale dusting attack on $LTC @Litecoin users…”

Binance Academy offered further explanations regarding this matter.
A dusting attack is a new type of malicious activity in which hackers attempt to breach user privacy by sending tiny amounts of coins to their personal wallets. These transaction footprints are then tracked down by the attackers who analyse several addresses and try to find out about the person or company owning each wallet and execute further scams such as phishing attacks.
The term ‘dust’ refers to the tiny fractions of crypto coins that most users ignore. In the cases of BTC and LTC, dust is defined as any transaction output that is lower than the fees for that transaction
A couple of hundred satoshis may be referred to as ‘dust’.
A similar attack against Bitcoin users was recorded in October 2018 by the developers of the privacy-oriented wallet Samourai Wallet.
Usually, Bitcoin has been the first choice for the “dusters” but this time, they seem to have besieged Litecoin users.
Some wallet providers like Samourai, today offer safeguards such as ‘Do Not Spend’ options on fractions of crypto coins. If the dust is not moved, the attack is thwarted.
LTC prices and markets have not been affected by this attack. The hackers do not target the network in any way and rely largely on social engineering to be successful. At the time of reporting, Litecoin was trading down on the day and the week at around $85.

Rishma Banerjee

Rishma is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and has a special place in her life for sifting through all sorts of random trivia, thank you very much.

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