Dropbox

Dropbox is a neat tool that lets you store files online, synchronize your files across multiple computers, and share files with others. It’s quite useful and convenient, especially because they give you 2GB free! (I've used it to share files that were hundreds of megabytes large.) From a quick scan, they do seem to have their bases covered - all transmitted and stored data is encrypted, and they say they have strengthened their web servers and client application against hackers.

Similar to all other online accounts you should:

• Be sure to use a strong password (If you use a weak password and Mr. Stranger guesses it, he could gain access to your files.)
• You will also probably not want to store any of your personal, confidential data on Dropbox.

If you are thinking about using Dropbox (or other tool) to synchronize files between your home and work computer, here are a few things you may want to consider:

• Does your company allow you to install external software on your company-issued computer?
• Does your company allow you to use external software to store your work (possibly company confidential) information?
• Are you putting company information at risk of being compromised?

Chances are external software is something your company does not want you to use and is against your company's employee security policy. From your company's perspective, your company has no control over the external software provider or the external software (such as Dropbox, Google, etc,) and if that software were to have some kind of security failure, your company confidential data (and possibly entire computer) could be compromised. Better safe than sorry.