And another stupid question...

[ffutures]

Are there any hideous security etc. problems with Dropbox I should know about? It sounds good, and my family and I seem to be exchanging a lot of baby photos etc. which it might help with, but does it leave any holes in the PC's security, bombard you with spam, or anything like that?

Comments

[thermalsatsuma.livejournal.com]

Apparently because of the ways that they store keys, Dropbox could decrypt your files that they have stored. I use it as an easy way of sharing files between different pcs ( and my phone) and in my experience it's seamless and trouble free. I just wouldn't store anything secret on there.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Haven't had any problems yet. I would assume the only bit in danger of getting spam would be public folders but I doubt you'd do that.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

It was always totally obvious that they can decrypt your files, from the fact that they have a web interface where you can get at them.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

Dropbox is a very solid service, even if they have somewhat exaggerated their security in their PR material.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I don't think family photos (and possibly some RPG and Fanfic stuff) are too big a problem security-wise, I'll give it a try.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I was thinking more of a folder for myself, and a subfolder (if I'm understanding how it works correctly) for family stuff, nothing public.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - security of data isn't a big worry, it's more security of the computer with their software running.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Dropbox did have a security event recently which I can't remember the details of. I can hunt it up.

I've found their service to be fine. I don't keep credit card details in there but I do not know of anything better.

And if you stay below 2Gb it is free.

[turol.livejournal.com]

If you use the desktop client there's no day to revoke access to a computer. If your PC is stolen the thief will have full access to your dropbox account and the only thing you can do is close the account.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. Good to know.

Can you not simply change the password? or are you saying that once authorised the desktop client doesn't need a password any more?

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Not sure if you can protect a subfolder within a shared folder. Might be better to create a separate one.
Do you have an account yet? If not, I can send you an invite an we can profit both. ;)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Too late - sorry, I set one up over breakfast this morning.

If I'm reading it right I'd need a separate account which everyone has access to in order to share a whole folder - I don't think Dropbox lets you have more than one account on a single computer, so since I need it for my own documents too the photos will have to wait.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

So why do they want to know the names of the computers? I thought that would be for administration purposes.

Never mind, there won't be anything hugely confidential in mine anyway - just game development stuff etc. I might want to access from more than one computer.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Never mind. ;)

Not really, you can have private, shared and public folders in the same account.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'll have to take a closer look at the documentation - thanks again!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!