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Dropbox 2012 Hack – Over 60 Million Log-ins Compromised

Sad computer, thinking about Dropbox

I remember seeing the news.  I remember getting the email.

Dropbox had been compromised back in 2012, and at the time, they said it was a good idea to change your password, you know... because it's best practice... and stuff...

This was just a year before the dreaded Adobe Hack that got tons of people up in arms about user data security (and even made twitter FORCE me to change my password).

At the time we didn't know how many users had been compromised.  Now we know it to be over 60 Million user accounts, some with password hashed with the weaker SHA1 cryptographic algorithm.

So what can you do about it?

Well, first off, you need to decide, "Is this something I feel strongly enough about to stop using dropbox?"

If it isn't, that is fine.  We recommend changing your password, especially if you were a user in 2012 and hadn't already done so.  Also activating 2-factor authentication is a great way to help secure your account.  And for the love of all that is good - DO NOT STORE SENSITIVE INFORMATION IN DROPBOX! This includes unencrypted passwords, banking information, encryption keys or anything that could be used to wreak havoc on your life.

That last bit is actually good advice for any cloud storage.

If you decide that you want to be done with DropBox, we are here with some recommendations and suggestions.

First, make sure you have a backup of ALL YOUR FILES to a external hard drive or local system.  If they are particularly important it might be best to have them copied in a few places.

Next, you need to decide if you want to go down the path of Cloud-Based storage again.  There are plenty of solutions that you can have at your house that provide you access to your files remotely.

If you want to use a Commercial Cloud Storage service again, there are plenty.

If you don't want to keep your files locally, and you don't want to use one of the big commercial guys, there are a few dropbox clones that you can use with your hosting account. We have Pydio And OwnCloud community editions in our one click installs options with installatron.  Both have sync apps for Deskop and Mobile, and have the ability to get Enterprise Support.

As we become a more connected society, we will naturally want to have our own personal information more readily available to us; but, it is important to protect our personal information.

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