Michael Crider
Do you use the same mildly random password for each site and service? Well stop it, you’re making the internet security fairy cry. There are plenty of ways to use safe, secure passwords while saving and organizing them, and now there’s one more: Dropbox. The popular cloud storage and syncing system announced its password manager update today.
Dropbox Passwords works very much like its erstwhile competition, saving the login and password data for sites and apps, and logging in automatically via tools on iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac. The announcement post says that they’re saved with “zero-knowledge encryption,” i.e. the actual text of the usernames and passwords isn’t accessible to anyone except the user, including Dropbox.
The service is also adding a feature called Vault, an extra-secure folder that gets another layer of encryption beyond the standard Dropbox files, plus a PIN for secure access. Emergency access to your Vault can be shared without opening the rest of your account. The Dropbox desktop client is also getting a much-needed feature upgrade: the ability to sync files and folders outside of the main Dropbox folder. (This is something that plenty of alternatives can already do.)
All three of these upgrades are in the Dropbox beta at the moment, with Passwords and Vault being offered only to a portion of Dropbox Plus subscribers ($10 a month, 2TB storage).
