10 ways of making Dropbox service safer to use.
Over half a billion people around the world use Dropbox service to store their data. Is it reliable enough and what can you do to improve its security?
Dropbox was founded in 2007 as a simple service that allows users to store files online while also syncing them to folders on their PCs, laptops, and smartphones. Over 15 years after its initial launch, Dropbox has over 500 million users worldwide, with 1.2 billion files uploaded to the service every day.
Here are some more astounding Dropbox facts:
- This service stores 35 billion Microsoft Office files;
- It supports 20 different languages;
- Every second, approximately 4,000 file edits are made on Dropbox.
It comes as no surprise that cybersecurity and privacy are critical for such massive data volumes.
Although the company strives to provide the highest level of security to their customers, some security issues are unavoidable. Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to ensure a higher level of your data security.
10 steps to make your Dropbox more secure.
- Enable Two-Step Verification
Two-step verification is a powerful tool for preventing unauthorised access to your accounts that is now available on most popular online services.
Dropbox two-factor authentication allows you to have a code sent to your phone whenever someone tries to log into your account from a new device.
To enable the feature in Dropbox, go to Settings from the drop-down menu in the top right corner of your account’s home page. Then go to the Security tab and enable two-factor authentication.
- Remove Linked Devices
Scroll down to see the Devices list in the same Security tab where you enabled two-step verification earlier. Here you’ll find the names of the devices to which you’ve linked your Dropbox account, as well as where you’ve used them and when you last used Dropbox on them.
You’ll see a ‘x’ at the far right of the list, which allows you to delink the device and ensure that anyone else who uses it won’t be able to access your account automatically.
- Go through current Web Sessions
Users can view their current web sessions on the same Security page, just above the list of linked devices, which shows the browsers that are currently logged into your Dropbox account. This list can reassure you that no one else is logging into your account.
- Manage Your Linked Apps
You can view all the apps you’ve given permission to over the years near the bottom of Dropbox’s security settings page, and just like de-listing trusted devices, you can easily revoke permission for any given app.
- Set Up Email Notifications
Dropbox offers you the option of getting emails sent to your account whenever something changes, including logins from new devices or browsers, whenever new apps are given access or when a significant number of files are deleted. Email notifications can be managed from the Profile panels of the Settings menu.
- Use A VPN
A virtual private network, or VPN, is a network of connected computers that creates an encrypted tunnel that redirects your browsing to a VPN server instead of a public server. Dropbox (or anyone else for that matter) won’t be able to see your real IP address as a result of this.
- Encrypt your data
One way to avoid Dropbox’s ability to snoop on your data is to get there first and encrypt all of your data before uploading it to Dropbox, which means Dropbox won’t have the encryption keys needed to unlock your files. You can use any free online tools for this purpose.
- Create a Strong Password
Never underestimate an importance of a strong password. It should ideally consist of a mix of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. However, remembering a long and unique password can be difficult, and that’s where Password managers comes to scene.
- Sync and Backup to Other Secure File Storage Services
Backups are a well-known data security essential. Other file storage systems, like Dropbox, have built-in security features. Using the automated processes built into another secure system to back up your Dropbox files strengthens data security while also providing connection protection.
- Try a Dropbox Alternative
Sync.com, pCloud, Icedrive and MEGA are the best all-around alternatives to Dropbox, due to great prices, ease of use and security.
