Dropbox Hit by Major Cyberattack, 5,000 Accounts Compromised

US technology company Dropbox, which provides online cloud storage services, has suffered a major cyberattack. During August, hackers gained unauthorized access to the accounts of around 5,000 users and collected and downloaded files from them.

After Bloomberg News first reported the incident, Dropbox officially acknowledged that the cyber intrusion took place between August 4 and August 21.

However, there is some relief: hackers were able to view or download confidential files from fewer than one-third of the affected accounts.

Password and Security Flaws

Following an initial investigation, Dropbox said the hackers primarily targeted accounts linked to technology company Lenovo ID that did not have two-factor authentication enabled.

By exploiting a technical flaw in an older integration framework of Lenovo ID, the cybercriminals were able to gain access without the main Dropbox password. Once the incident was detected, the authorities terminated all active Dropbox sessions operating through Lenovo ID.

At the same time, the connection between the two systems was severed, and users are now required to provide their own Dropbox password to regain access.

Legal Action and Impact on the Stock Market

Dropbox has already formally notified international data-protection regulators about the customer data security breach.

Meanwhile, Lenovo said in a statement that although some Dropbox accounts were affected because of the old technical vulnerability, none of Lenovo’s own customers were victims of the hacking incident.

As news of the cyberattack became public, Dropbox’s share price fell by approximately 2.4 percent on international stock markets. Affected users are already being urged via email to change their passwords and take additional security measures.

//DBTech/BMT/OR//