The bitcoin ecosystem has recorded a new kind of attack on cryptocurrency users called "crypto-dust". Crypto-dust involves the distribution of a small amount of "laundered" cryptocurrency funds to random wallets of unsuspecting users, which in turn affects their reputation, attracts the attention of law enforcement and threatens the property of bitcoin's interchangeability.
According to DarkReading, crypto-dust is a new type of attack that distributes a small proportion of illegally obtained funds from an unknown source to the wallets of innocent cryptocurrency holders.
Stolen/laundered / illegally received funds are usually sent to random crypto-currency addresses, and address owners have no protection from this process.
According to the DarkReading report, the crooks are using crypto mixers like BestMixer.io, to simplify the process of sending virtual currencies anonymously to random addresses.
Commenting on these incidents, Dave Jevans, CEO of research blockchain company CipherTrace, said that the recipients of" dirty money " can be aware of such transactions only through a welcome notice from BestMixer contained in their transaction history.
According to him, the attackers just spreading tryptophyl other people's cryptocotylar.
"WHEN HACKERS/ROBBERS START SUCH ALLOCATION TO PUT AT RISK THE INNOCENT USERS, THEY TAKE IN THE NETWORK A RANDOM NUMBER OF 75,000 ADDRESSES AND INITIATE TRANSACTIONS ON THE WALLETS".
Many users, having seen "bitcoins arrived from nowhere", believe that it is a gift. But the damage caused by such a "gift" can be expensive. First, if the recipient of a "dirty" transaction managed to highlight his address somewhere and at the same time he is verified on a particular service, law enforcement agencies may come to the recipient, suspecting him in connection with the attackers. Second, a bitcoin wallet, which from hackers did illegally obtained funds will immediately "stigmatized" in the services-producing monitoring suspicious transactions and enabling advanced Analytics to the bitcoin blockchain.
Protocols that monitor the activities associated with the laundering of money through cryptocurrency used by many major exchanges. Accounts susceptible to attack, "crypto dust", you risk to obtain a lock on the given trading platform.