Back in 2012, Dropbox had a security breach during which details for a whopping 68 680 741 accounts were stolen. These details included email addresses and protected passwords.

Recently, because of this breach, Dropbox actively reset many of its users’ passwords as people hadn’t changed their passwords since. Terrible.

To make sure the breach was in fact real, security researcher Troy Hunt checked his wife’s details. Fortune explains:

Knowing her real Dropbox password, which dated back to 2012, he was able to confirm that the scrambled or hashed version in the hacked data was in fact genuine. Fortunately, he said Dropbox had done a good job of keeping those passwords hard-to-read.

“The bcrypt hashing algorithm protecting it is very resilient to cracking and frankly, all but the worst possible password choices are going to remain secure even with the breach now out in the public,” Hunt wrote.

How did he do this? Well, Hunt runs a service called “Have I Been Pwned”. If you haven’t heard of it, it basically lets you search “troves of hacked login data” for your email address.

And now, it lists almost all the credentials from the Dropbox breach.

All you have to do is put your email address into the search bar, and the list of breaches it was a part of appears. Just pop over HERE and try it for yourself.

Life changing, I tell you.

To secure your account after a breach, remember to completely change your password as hackers have algorithms that know you better than you do. Read more about password security HERE.

Or, you could just have the best information security guys on your side and know the problem will always be under control.

[source:fortune]