Dropbox: Leaked User Data Is Old And Not Hacked

Hundreds of Dropbox user account names and passwords have appeared on Pastebin, and the people behind the publication claim that 7 million accounts have been affected. According to Dropbox, however, this concerns old data obtained through third parties.

Under the heading ‘Dropbox hacked’, 400 account names and associated passwords appeared on Pastebin. According to the people behind the publication, it was a foretaste: a total of 7 million accounts would have been hacked. By donating bitcoins, more publications would follow. “The more bitcoins are donated, the more logins and passwords are publicly distributed,” the individuals said.

In a statement, however, Dropbox states that it has not been hacked at all. “Unfortunately, the usernames and passwords have been stolen from other unrelated services and have been used in attempts to log in to sites on the Internet, including Dropbox,” the statement said. The storage service would have discovered the abuse before and the passwords would have already expired. “These types of attacks are the reason we advise against using the same passwords for multiple services,” Dropbox further explains, and also recommends activating two-factor authentication.