Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular these days, with online backup systems like CrashPlan or Carbonite offering full backups of your system, while services like iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox let you access your files from anywhere – including your mobile devices. As cloud services become more popular, though, security is a growing concern. Sure, all these services will happily store your stuff for you and give you access to it, but will they keep it safe? How far can you trust Carbonite or Apple or Google or Dropbox to make sure that you are the only person who can access your data?
With that in mind, Dropbox is now following Google’s lead and allowing users the option to turn on two-factor authorization for their accounts. Dropbox’s Dan Wheeler promises that the new feature will make users’ accounts far more secure. With two-factor authentication turned on, you will need both your password and a security code. You can have the code texted to your mobile device or generated using an app that’s available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry devices.
You’ll only need the authentication code once to sign into Dropbox on your mobile device. On your desktop or laptop computer, you’ll be offered a checkbox on sign-in that tells Dropbox to “Trust This Computer.” Checking the box will allow you to sign in using only your password on that computer in the future.
Dropbox users can opt in to two-factor authentication by logging into their Dropbox accounts and clicking on the Security tab in their account settings. From there, turning on two-factor verification is a fairly straightforward process.
Two-factor authentication has been in the news a fair bit lately. Google rolled out the feature last year to increase the security around users’ accounts. The feature gained more attention recently thanks to the much-publicized hacking of tech reporter Mat Honan’s iCloud account. The hackers were after Honan’s Twitter account, but to get there they had to go through his Gmail account and his iCloud account. In the process they deleted his Gmail account and wiped all data – including all the pictures from his new daughter’s first year – from his iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. It was pretty much a worst-case scenario as far as data loss goes, and Honan has said that if he’d had two-step authentication in place on his Google account, none of it could have happened.
Dropbox, meanwhile, has begun offering the extra security in response to reports last month that some users were experiencing a dramatic uptick in the amount of spam they received at the email address they used to sign in to the service. While they were not able to identify any unauthorized activity in any users’ accounts, they took the precaution of increasing their security, and promised more improvements to come.
While two-factor verification does create a little extra work when you’re signing in to a service like Dropbox, it also significantly increases your account’s security. Surely that peace of mind is worth a few extra seconds of typing.
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