{"id":2371,"date":"2014-06-26T09:50:38","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T14:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/?p=2371"},"modified":"2015-10-21T12:50:17","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T17:50:17","slug":"how-secure-is-dropbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/how-secure-is-dropbox\/","title":{"rendered":"How Secure is Dropbox?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IsMore and more companies are looking to harness the cloud as a part of their business. For many this starts out with centralizing all files on a cloud based service. Of all these services, Dropbox<\/a> is the most widely known, but is it suitable for use within your business?<\/span><\/p>\n

The most important thing to consider is the kind of content that you are planning to store in Dropbox. If you\u2019re a consumer facing company, or deal with a lot of personal and financial information, then you need to make sure that any information you save on the cloud is properly protected. If you\u2019re just looking to store files in a centralized location, security is less key, but it\u2019s worth keeping in mind anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n

Security<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Dropbox has a couple of features included with its service that help you to secure any data stored on it. First among these features is two-step verification, also known as two-factor authentication, which requires a user to provide both a password and a security code before being granted access to Dropbox. This security code is provided by the user\u2019s mobile device.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve used Google\u2019s<\/a> two-step verification before you should have a good idea of how this process works. If you want to avoid having a bunch of apps on your phone, you can also receive the code via SMS. When you enable two-step verification you also <\/span>receive an \u2018emergency backup code\u2019 which is 16-digits long and can be used to log into Dropbox if you\u2019re unable to generate a code at all. It goes without saying that you should store this code somewhere safe, and not let anyone else see it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email notifications<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Dropbox can be set up so that, whenever a new device or app connects to it, the manager of the account is sent an email. This gives you up-to-date information about any new or unauthorized access to your Dropbox account, and allows you to respond accordingly should someone other than an employee or other authorized personnel access your storage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manual disconnect<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

If you detect that there have been some unauthorized connections, or are unsure about whom a new connection belongs to, it\u2019s possible to manually \u2018unlink\u2019 these devices from your Dropbox. Obviously if you\u2019re a large company with hundreds of devices and apps connecting to your storage this can become unwieldy very fast, and you should probably be looking into other cloud options. If you\u2019re a small business however, it shouldn\u2019t be too difficult to manage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Strong passwords<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/h2>\n

Too often the reason files are accessed without permission is because the password used simply wasn\u2019t strong enough. There are some very simple steps that you can take that will ensure that your password is stronger than average (and for goodness sake, don\u2019t use Password or 12345678, they\u2019re the two most common passwords on the internet.)<\/span><\/p>\n