Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Dropbox

Does anyone use dropbox. Is it safe and how do they get on with it.

Been using it for years, no issues. One of the better hosting sites and that's just the free version. Good easy to use file/folder structure. Android and Windows friendly.

How secure is secure - no one knows until there is a breach. You do get an email warning if you add a new access device though with invitation to confirm it's of your doing.

I use it for storage and file transfer between devices. Imgur is my present picture hosting site, also free.

I use it occasionally and no problems

Dropbox was one of the first cloud storage vendors.
Box.com was the next most popular.
Apple had it attached to iCloud for cross device sharing
Microsoft then added it's own OneDrive
Google/Chrome/Android also includes a similar file store now

The first goal of these was to share files from mobile to Internet/laptop. After this they all added the ability to send files to other people as links etc. Most use the same levels of security in general.

Dropbox have had a couple of serious breaches (not unlike many others) and were not the most forthcoming when it happened. In the US it is normal to stay quiet for a period to allow forensic investigation but they were a good bit longer than that.

https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-e...en-exposed.html

As Dropbox (and the others mentioned) contain files they are considered a high profile target and so it is not surprising. Despite this I don't see them as any worse than the others.

Do enable the "you have had a login" as mentioned and use a strong, long unique password like all Cloudy things. If you are saving any files with personal information to it then encrypt them (MS Word has an add password option for example) individually.

In general if you are using these services to send a large personal file to someone by sharing a linking instead of a large email attachment you should password protect the individual file. If the other person should mistakenly forward the basic email with link they can get the file but still not read it. Send the password by SMS or some other means.

Been using DropBox since 2012 with no issues. Security tips above are worth noting. Also, if I use it to share large files with personal information of any kind, once the receiving person confirms they have copied the file to their own system, I delete the file.

One tip - the free storage you get on DropBox is good but every time you share a directory with someone new who is not a DropBox user, they increase your free storage. Managed to use it for a business for 6 years without paying.

I have used Dropbox for years to store files that I might need "on the move". The key ones are passowrd protected as well but I am far from sure what worth there is in the password protection of say spreadsheet files.

I also use them to store things like photos of the grandkids growing up - things that I would rather not lose if my PC went t1ts up.

No issues at all.

Fair point Howard. If the spreadsheet has nothing personal in it then the application password is not a biggie. I did say large personal file and for clarity I meant with any content that could be used or triangulated for identity theft.

Date of birth
Bank name
Addresses

I only mean this to illustrate not be rude. If you had a spreadsheet listing a group of 20 people going on a Morgan touring holiday and had their names, addresses, passport details, DoB, car reg and then tour information it is a golden nugget to the right person even well after the event.

The other issue with these tools is that they can also become "parallel IT" to a company system as they are faster, easier and more complete in many cases. I dealt with this a lot. Few companies held pace with the speed of mobile device engineering.

Salespeople would take extracts of customer databases and save them to dropbox to share with partners. These could be retained, forwarded etc. The company could then by called up for GDPR breaches. The password would have assisted in the compliance.

For reference I use it as well. I have some IoT home CCTV which exports the clips up to dropbox using API's just in case the camera gets nicked during the break-in!

Its always difficult to know how seriously to take the security issue for a private individual. Companies are obvious targets for scumbags but its difficult to imagine someone targetting me or rooting through a lot of data harvested elsewhere to then try and raid my bank account. Why me rather than the other 60 million Brits? There is a difference between what can be done and what is likely to actually happen.

How real is the threat to private individuals doing internet banking and using common sense eg not clicking on links in emails etc. Maybe you could comment.

I use LastPass to store passwords. Its free but then if I were a computer fluent scumbag and I wanted to harvest peoples passwords I would offer free computer software to store passwords. Even if that isnt the case, and I have no reason to think it is the case with LastPass, all of a sudden all my passwords can be accessed if the scumbag manages to crack just one, the one for Last Pass.

I used to use a password protected spreadshhet to store passwords and the data inside was memory joggers rather than the passwords themselves. Inevitably the passwords had to be simpler. There are no memory joggers for what Last Pass invents, such as 1sKg9kLYzJHku79

I'd be interested in your comments on my approach.

Thank you all very much for your advice. I need it because I have files, general technical information etc, that I have saved on my tablet which has some how started allowing lots of intruding popup adverts. I want to revert to factory settings and therefore would loose the files.

All fair points Howard. Your approach is very sensible. Other elements ?

First thing you can do is check to see if you have protection in the form of personal insurance. Many home policies can include identity theft now so if you do a LOT on the interweb check and adjust yours accordingly. Many CREDIT but not all debit cards have cover, again check. If you now suffer a breach then at least you are not bankrupt and can eat and pay your bills tomorrow. Again it should be proportionate to your risk/investment in Interweb activity.

It can be easy to obsess around this stuff. Your comments about using a password protection application is wise. If OCD kicks in then the biggest worry is an inside job at that company releasing the lot. My observation would be to change the master password regularly.

If the files do contain your/family/business then store it on a USB stick and lock/hide this well, with one other person knowing where it is in case of an outage.

The footprint we leave on passing is very complex now. It can take family some time to unwind our on-line lives which makes it all the more painful. This is something not often discussed but perhaps needs to be. Simple consideration can be found here. https://www.hacker9.com/pass-your-online-accounts-after-death.html

This is a huge subject overall. I don't really know where to start and end.