Close to 7 million Dropbox user accounts have been compromised due to hacking. The cloud storage service Dropbox denies the attack.
Passwords and usernames of 6,937,081 Dropbox users have allegedly been hacked by an anonymous party, which supposedly gained access via third-party applications that users granted account access to and not directly through Dropbox.
On Monday, Oct. 13, at 4:10 PM CDT, the hackers posted the emails and passwords of nearly 400 accounts on Pastebin in plain text. The details of the 400 odd emails start with "B" and the hackers have labeled this list as a "first teaser...just to get things going."
The hackers warn that they will do further damage and leak additional account details if they are not paid in Bitcoins.
The leaked details were tested by few Reddit users who confirm that some of the details work and are authentic.
"Using a throwaway for obvious reasons, but can confirm at least one works," noted a Reddit user.
Dropbox, however, is denying the hacking and avers that the passwords were pinched via third-party apps instead.
"Dropbox has not been hacked. These usernames and passwords were unfortunately stolen from other services and used in attempts to log in to Dropbox accounts. We'd previously detected these attacks and the vast majority of the passwords posted have been expired for some time now. All other remaining passwords have been expired as well," says Dropbox in a statement.
Dropbox is also reportedly sending out emails to its users whose accounts have been compromised, advising them to reset the passwords.
Whether a user's Dropbox account has been hacked or not, it is advisable that they change their password as a precautionary measure. Dropbox also offers two-step authentication security option and users are encouraged to avail of this measure for added safety.
The recent spate of hacks like Snappening, Apple's iCloud accounts, and now Dropbox, expose the vulnerability of these platforms. While Dropbox, Apple and Snapchat have all shifted the blame to third-party apps, stringent measures need to be taken to nip the issue in the bud.
