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neilBar's avatar
neilBar
Helpful | Level 5
3 years ago
Solved

compromised? stolen mac timemachine disk - what does "localdomain" mean in 'connected devices' list?

Hi I'm bit worried, my mac time machine discs were stolen last week (unencrypted) so I changed my dropbox password (and many others) 10 am this morning, I was prompted to check the devices connecte...
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  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    3 years ago

    Hi neilBar, the names don't really mean much, since this is the name pulled from the device itself when first making the connection to the Dropbox server. 

     

    If you hover over the i icon, you can see the IP address of the device itself. If it matches one of your own, then it could be another device you have on your premises, or immediately location.

     

    If you don't recognize the device, you can simply remove it from your account. If you're on a paid plan, you can also remotely wipe the Dropbox folder on that device at the same time.

Mark's avatar
Mark
Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
3 years ago

The simple answer is 'thats what your Mac was called at that time'. Updating the OS can change that. There is nothing sinister about it. 

 

If they have access to saved browser info then changing will help but you also need to update things like emails etc. Consider 2FA as well.

neilBar's avatar
neilBar
Helpful | Level 5
3 years ago

Hi Mark

 

thanks

"The simple answer is 'thats what your Mac was called at that time'"

but I never had a mac called: ChristopersMBP4 its lookin glike it was someone else in my Dropbox

 

and I'd still like to know why it was labelled "localdomain" wheras my others are "local"

 

yeah I'm doing 2FA where its available

 

good of you to help

neil

  • Mark's avatar
    Mark
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    3 years ago
    neilBar wrote:

    Hi Mark

    and I'd still like to know why it was labelled "localdomain" wheras my others are "local"

    Because thats what your Mac was called at the time you installed it. 

    • neilBar's avatar
      neilBar
      Helpful | Level 5
      3 years ago

      Hi Mark

       

      thanks for trying but my mac was never called ChristopersMBP4, there's no Christopher in my family

      • neilBar's avatar
        neilBar
        Helpful | Level 5
        3 years ago

        Hi, I have suffered a data breach, some backup disks were stolen.

        I spotted a Mac I don't recognize connected to my Dropbox account in: Dropbox settings/security/devices.

         

        I believe that the thieves COULD have cloned my Mac using my Time Machine backups to restore a machine, that way they'd have my browser saved passwords. So before I changed the passwords they COULD have accessed my dropbox acct online.

        My own connected Macs are listed there as "XXX.local", but this one was listed as "ChristopersMBP4.localdomain".

        There's no Christopher here, No Mac here was never named that way.

        I am finding it hard to understand what " localdomain" -v - "local" means in this context - if anyone knows I'd be very grateful.

         

        Here's a screenshot when it was connected, I binned it immediately.

        All my own macs are connected now - as XXX.local

         

        thanks

         

         

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