Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Dropbox Isn’t as Secure as You Think
cognoscape.com
2 | cognoscape.com
Dropbox Isn’t as Secure as You Think
Dropbox makes storing
documents and sharing with your
team simple, but it’s important to
understand that it may not be as
secure as you think. A number of
recent Dropbox hacks have shown
it is risky to store sensitive,
unencrypted information with this
cloud service but the good news
is you have other options if you
need to store sensitive data.
3 | cognoscape.com
Compromised Client and Employee Email Addresses Lead to Bigger ProblemsMost every business has a
database or file containing a list
of their client and/or employee
email addresses. If you back
up your list using a service like
Dropbox, you run the risk of a
hacker accessing the file. Those
email addresses could be sold to
spammers, and soon everyone in
your list will receive hundreds
or thousands of spam emails,
“There are other potential security problems when companies use Dropbox, beyond outside hackers...”
4 | cognoscape.com
viruses, or become victims of
phishing attempts.
More concerning is the possibility
for hackers to gain access to
many other cloud based or online
programs requiring an email and
password for the people on your
list. Many people reuse the same
password for multiple online
services, like Gmail, social media
accounts, and shopping sites. If
one site’s user information is
compromised, hackers can use
advanced software to try the
username and password on other
websites to gain access to their
other user accounts.
Dropbox Didn’t Follow Best Practices After Password BreachIf passwords become
compromised for users of an
online service, everyone with
an account should reset their
passwords. When passwords were
stolen from Dropbox accounts,
they only reset the passwords of
5 | cognoscape.com
users they knew to be affected
when they saw the usernames in
uploads to password-cracking
forums. The best practice
response to a password breach
is to reset all users’ passwords
because security experts believe
that hackers generally remove
the passwords they’ve already
stolen from uploads to password-
cracking forums – in other
words, hackers keep some data
for themselves and don’t always
publish the whole list for others
to use.
Company Access to Employee FileThere are other potential security
problems when companies use
Dropbox, beyond outside hackers.
What happens when an employee
saving their company-related
documents to their Dropbox
account quits or is fired? Your IT
department no longer has access
to data stored on an individual’s
Dropbox account which means
if an employee leaves the
6 | cognoscape.com
organization, you can lose the
information they’ve saved to
Dropbox forever.
Improve Security for your Cloud StorageIf your company will use Dropbox
to store information, it’s in your
best interest to store only non-
sensitive data with the service.
That way, if their security isn’t
as strong as it needs to be, your
company won’t be at risk should
your information get into the
wrong hands. If you would like
7 | cognoscape.com
to securely store sensitive data
in the cloud, you have options
beyond the popular Dropbox
solution. Call Cognoscape
to learn how we protect your
sensitive files and data and see
how easy it is to get started with
our secure storage solutions.
