Dropbox is under some pressure this morning to prove that the site has not been hacked. An anonymous group of hackers claims that seven million Dropbox user names and passwords have been taken from the site, and that the site’s security has been breached.

The hackers posted hundreds of usernames and passwords on the site “Pastebin” this morning with the threat that millions more would follow. The hackers, it turns out, have a demand that is somewhat unusual.

The Trade Off

The hackers that claim to have breached Dropbox’s security walls are demanding “Bitcoin donations.” Once these donations have been given, the hackers will release the rest of the hacked data. But, Dropbox claims that the hackers did not actually penetrate Dropbox’s security. Instead, Dropbox reps have told press that the hack happened through other sites where user passwords and information was stored.

Allegedly, hackers used the information (names and security information) gathered from other sites online to try and hack into Dropbox user accounts. This wouldn’t be the first time that a group of hackers obtains such information elsewhere and uses it to break into other accounts - in fact, it’s quite common, which is why it’s best to choose different passwords and usernames for every single account that you have, including Dropbox.

Keeping Your Dropbox Info Safe

So how can you tell if your Dropbox details have been hacked? Well, you can’t right now, but what you can do to avoid future hacks is to go through the two-step authentication process that Dropbox offers. This kind of security is the only thing that appears to work well when it comes to making sure that your account is safe - not only through Dropbox, but also through other sites like Gmail.

The hackers that have claimed to have accessed Dropbox information will release account details if those Bitcoin donations are received. Unfortunately, there’s nothing that you can do right now to ensure that your name and password aren’t part of the list of names and passwords that have been obtained (if this is the case, that is).

Dropbox Responds

How can Dropbox be sure that the hack didn’t happen through the Dropbox site? The company has told press that there is a security feature in place that allows Dropbox to detect any kind of hack, and that security feature has not been breached yet, which means that the hack did not happen within Dropbox. But, the company is still urging users to make sure to set up that two-step authentication process.

None of this is good news for a company like Dropbox, since millions of people use the app every single day (and some major corporations), but hacks are inevitable if you use the same login details across many different sites. In short, make sure that you are using a password keep or other app that can scramble your passwords and usernames, or risk being part of a massive hack like the one mentioned here. Was your Dropbox account hacked?