Update: The alleged hack against Dropbox is looking more like is an elaborate hoax, timed perfectly with the website’s incidental outage. As security researcher Wesley Mcgrew points out, the emails supposedly stolen from Dropbox have been found elsewhere on the web and a known Anonymous Twitter account is officially denying their involvement. Moreover, it seems the group claiming credit may incur the wrath of Anonymous, because they said the attack was in the name of fallen internet activist, Aaron Swartz.

Dropbox sent us this updated response, confirming the hoax:

“Dropbox site is back up.

In regards to claims of “leaked user information” – this is a hoax. This is not Dropbox data. The list was published 12/9/13 at: http://pastebin.com/64PAAV1c

Today’s outage was caused during internal maintenance, and was not caused by external factors. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

Our original story below:

Popular backup service Dropbox is offline and the hacktivist contingent, Anonymous, is claiming credit. “BREAKING NEWS: We have just compromised the @Dropbox Website http://bit.ly/1cMlbvt #hacked #compromised,” tweeted an alleged Anonymous Twitter account.

https://twitter.com/AnonOpsKorea/status/421823871960899585

Dropbox seems to be denying their website was hacked: “We are aware of an issue currently affecting the Dropbox site. We have identified the cause, which was the result of an issue that arose during routine internal maintenance, and are working to fix this as soon as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience,” went a company blog post. [Update: Dropbox and has called us and is explicitly denying they have been hacked]

If they were, indeed, hacked it’s not clear who is ultimately responsible. Another hacktivist group, 1775sec, is also claiming credit:

https://twitter.com/1775Sec/status/421820685766250496

We have reached out to Dropbox for more details and will update you on this story as details unfold.

Meanwhile, 1775sec and Anonymous have been mocking Dropbox’s denial and claiming the hack was done in the honor of fallen Internet activist, Aaron Swartz.

https://twitter.com/1775Sec/status/421831664239509504

1775sec also claims that they successfully stole a list of email addresses from Dropbox, which they posted on the website, pastebin.com.

Story is unfolding…