Dropbox might soon offer free storage for users creating stronger passwords

By Eugene Kim

Dropbox sees sloppy passwords as its biggest security threat and may soon start offering additional free space to users who create stronger passwords.
Patrick Heim, Dropbox's head of trust and security, said at an event in London on Wednesday that the company's greatest threats are not necessarily the sophisticated hacker attacks - rather, it's the users reusing dumb passwords that can easily be stolen.

"The number one challenge is consumers reusing credentials across multiple websites, and we see a pattern where websites will get hacked, they may not even know it, and then encrypted passwords are stolen," Heim was quoted as saying by V3.

In order to solve this problem, Heim said his team is working hard to get the message out that users need to create stronger passwords and go through certain security measures to ensure their accounts don't get hacked. Some of those measures include using password management tools or activating two-factor authentication, where a new set of security code is sent by SMS or email.

In fact, one of the projects Heim is working on include an incentive program where users will get more free storage space for undergoing additional password healthchecks.

"One of the things we're working on right now is a project we haven't broadly disclosed yet, but it's really to incentivize consumers to go through a security healthcheck both in terms of the authentication settings, the sharing settings, etcetera, and when they complete that they may get additional free storage space as an incentive," Heim told IT Pro.

Heim also said Dropbox is looking into the possibility of integrating FIDO Universal Second Factor security keys to its product, where users can verify itself using USB drives.

Dropbox declined to comment on the incentive program.

Dropbox has been spending more time to address concerns over its security. For example, last year it launched a bounty program that would reward hackers who identified any security flaws in its software.