There’s no denying the utility of Dropbox. It is used in more than 200 countries with support in 19 languages; more than 300,000 apps are supported by the Dropbox platform.
This is a big accomplishment, especially when you consider that less than a decade ago, only savvy college students and people in the tech community knew about Dropbox.
The rise of Dropbox coincided with a boom in mobile computing and network accessibility. As laptop computers became lighter, faster and cheaper, a new wave of technology — smartphones and tablets — began to hit the market. The smartphone ushered in a new era of connectivity. Now, people didn’t need to dig a laptop out of their bag and log into Wi-Fi to stay connected; they’d simply take a smartphone from their pocket and have a world of information at their fingertips.
As users amassed more mobile devices, the need to sync data between them all became more apparent. Dropbox met that need. The business community took note, especially as its own users started using personal Dropbox accounts to store and share company information. The launch of Dropbox for Business in 2011 was a direct response to so many companies wrestling to maintain control over their files as employees turned to Dropbox for its functional and easy-to-use sync and share solution.
The Rise Of Consumer-Grade File Sharing Services
Today, millions of people use consumer-grade services like Dropbox, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive to share and sync their work files. OneDrive is the No. 2 cloud-based file storage solution, behind Dropbox and ahead of Google Drive. But OneDrive is expected to surpass Dropbox upon the release of Windows 10, where it will be bundled for free.
However, these services don’t provide the security and access controls — such as mobile content management (MCM) and digital rights management (DRM) — necessary for many enterprise clients to operate under compliance and within certain regulations.
Moreover, because of its size, Dropbox is a big target.
It’s no secret that password security is poor overall. IBM reports that password security continues to be a “major factor” in data breaches around the globe. IBM’s Threat Intelligence Quarterly report indicates that poorly managed authentication policies — be it predictable or weak passwords, or the reuse of passwords across the Internet and the enterprise — is “concerning.”
Anyone with the will and the way could gain access to any of the millions of known email addresses and plain text passwords compiled from security breaches over the years. This stolen data can help hackers further enumerate common passwords, as well as provide ammunition for brute-force attacks on a system by exploiting commonly reused passwords.
Why You Should Consider Dropbox Alternatives
In 2014, several hundred Dropbox account passwords were leaked and hackers threatened to expose as many as 7 million more stolen account records. Although the integrity of Dropbox’s enterprise file security was called into question, the cloud storage provider denied it was hacked, saying instead that “usernames and passwords were unfortunately stolen from other services and used in attempts to log in to Dropbox accounts.”
While Dropbox’s servers were not hacked into, Dropbox user accounts were still compromised. With end-user password strength continuing to be a weak link in information security, wouldn’t you want to share your enterprise files on a system that can control file access beyond the corporate network and delete files remotely if necessary?
If so, start looking into the Dropbox alternatives on the market that offer greater security and control with the user-friendly features.
Learn more about secure enterprise file sharing by reading our free report, 5 Warnings You Should Heed When Searching For Dropbox Alternatives.
