Dropbox has been hacked - Yahoo! Finance Canada (http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/dropbox-hacked-change-password-now-151255950.html)

For those that use Dropbox. Sounds like someone was using the same password for dropbox and other websites.

good thing I use passwords to sites like these that have no value - i never use my password for banking or important reason on sites that are like dropbox and yahoo etc.

just checked my log: just to show that I barely have anything of importance on it anyway..
set up my own private cloud.. more secure and control and doesnt have a direct link to my computer as well, like drop box.

MyMacbookPro
Canada about 4 months ago

MyLaptop
Canada about 8 months ago

Macbook Pro
Canada about 10 months ago

..set up my own private cloud..

Care to share the steps you took to complete this?

sent you a private message

One of the steps that I take is to Password protect any file that has sensitive information on it.
For example I would Password lock a Numbers file before putting it up in DropBox.
I know it is not perfect and can still be compromised, but next step up would be to "Encrypt" the file before sending it to Dropbox.
Lastly and probably most importantly I do not put up anything that is "really sensitive", I just keep it on my own local computer.

These methods can help some with the Privacy issue of Cloud Computing.
Remember this is just not a DropBox problem but an issue with most Cloud Solutions.

Just my 2 cents.
DavidH

Dropbox has been hacked - Yahoo! Finance Canada (http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/dropbox-hacked-change-password-now-151255950.html)


I really find it annoying that the author of the article talks about dropbox being "hacked".
Someone just got a user name and password and logged in, no hacking involved.

I really find it annoying that the author of the article talks about dropbox being "hacked".
Someone just got a user name and password and logged in, no hacking involved.

Yeah, I agree, I didn't care for the title of the article. Dropbox wasn't hacked. Certain people's accounts were accessed because they used the same password for dropbox and other sites, and the hackers found out the passwords from the other sites.

Just to elaborate on this a bit....
When a web site or account is "hacked", that implies to me that the software used has a security hole somewhere that a smart programmer can exploit to gain unauthorized access.
That wasn't the case here according to the article.

And on that note, what really blew my mind a while back was another web site that was really hacked and where the hackers gained access to a list of user IDs and passwords that were stored on that web site - what was really unbelievable was that the passwords were stored on that site in plain text.

I used to be pretty lax with passwords other than the ones used to access financial sites, but I'm changing this as I go.
Each place will get a different password and they will be a bit more complex - just means I have to keep a track of them or set up more of the non-critical sites for automatic log in.

As a user and support person for over 100 accounts, I can no longer keep all these ids and passwords unique in my head.
I use iOS, OSX and Windows7, 8 and soon 2008R2 (at the office) and I have found LastPass.com (the free version) to be a practical way to manage many secure passwords across all these environments. There are other tools (KeyPass with Dropbox, and Password1 which is popular with Mac users); check them out so you can begin securing your online identity.