![]() ![]() For instance, back in 2021, Cybernews reported on one which contained 3.2 billion records. We’ve seen compilations of multiple breaches ( COMB) before but this may be the largest one ever recorded to date. While you can come up with passwords on your own, the best password managers can do this for you and store all of your passwords securely in one place. This is why you should absolutely be using strong, complex and unique passwords for all of your online accounts. ![]() You see, if you reuse the same password across multiple sites and services, once hackers get your credentials for one account, they will then use them to access your other accounts. The biggest threat though, involves password reuse. We can confirm that the scope of the password reset we completed last week did protect all impacted users.Even though a lot of this data is older, it could still be used in a wide range of nefarious ways online including identity theft, phishing attacks, targeted cyberattacks and unauthorized access to users’ personal and sensitive accounts according to the security researchers who discovered it. Our analysis confirms that the credentials are user email addresses with hashed and salted passwords that were obtained prior to mid-2012. Picking the right password manager is just as crucial and using one in the first place.Ī Dropbox spokesperson said: “There is no indication that Dropbox user accounts have been improperly accessed. But recent attacks on companies including browser maker Opera, which stores and syncs user passwords, and password manager OneLogin, have exposed the dangers of using the tool. Leading security experts recommend the use of a password manager to secure the scores of unique and complex passwords needed to properly secure the various login details needed for daily life. Even with solid encryption practices for securing users’ passwords, Dropbox fell foul of password reuse and entry into its company network. The hack highlights the need for tight security, both at the user end – the use of strong passwords, two-step authentication and no reuse of passwords – and for the companies storing user data. From there they gained access to the user database with passwords that were encrypted and “salted” – the latter a practice of adding a random string of characters during encryption to make it even harder to decrypt.ĭropbox reset a number of users’ passwords at the time, but the company has not said precisely how many. The original breach appears to be the result of the reuse of a password a Dropbox employee had previously used on LinkedIn, the professional social network that suffered a breach that revealed the password and allowed the hackers to enter Dropbox’s corporate network. “Definitely still change your password if you’re in any doubt whatsoever and make sure you enable Dropbox’s two-step verification while you’re there if it’s not on already.” “The bcrypt hashing algorithm protecting is very resilient to cracking and frankly, all but the worst possible password choices are going to remain secure even with the breach now out in the public,” said Hunt. Half the passwords were still encrypted with SHA1 at the time of the theft. At the time Dropbox practiced good user data security practice, encrypting the passwords and appears to have been in the process of upgrading the encryption from the SHA1 standard to a more secure standard called bcrypt. The company had around 100m customers at the time, meaning the data dump represents over two-thirds of its user accounts. Hunt said: “There is no doubt whatsoever that the data breach contains legitimate Dropbox passwords, you simply can’t fabricate this sort of thing.”ĭropbox sent out notifications last week to all users who had not changed their passwords since 2012. The independent security researcher and operator of the Have I been pwned? data leak database, Troy Hunt, verified the data discovering both his account details and that of his wife. The dump of passwords came to light when the database was picked up by security notification service Leakbase, which sent it to Motherboard. ![]()
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