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The online storage platform Dropbox has binned its unlimited storage plan after discovering some of its users were using the service for resource-intensive purposes like mining crypto<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an Aug. 24 blog post<\/a>, Dropbox said its unlimited Advanced plan has instead moved to a metered storage plan with new users getting 15 terabytes of storage \u2014 apparently enough to house 100 million documents.<\/p>\n It added it knew its \u201call the space you need\u201d plan would result in uneven usage levels but in recent months it had seen a surge in some users consuming \u201cthousands of times more storage than our genuine business customers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA growing number of customers were buying Advanced subscriptions not to run a business or organization, but instead for purposes like crypto and Chia mining.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Dropbox said other high-resource uses included some reselling its storage or multiple individuals pooling storage for personal use.<\/p>\n Dropbox cited the increased unintended usage growth following \u201cother services making similar policy changes.\u201d Microsoft and Google have also scrapped their unlimited storage<\/a> plans in recent months.<\/p>\n The company said it understands the move is \u201cdisappointing\u201d but added it would be unsustainable and difficult to enforce a list of unacceptable use cases.<\/p>\n Related: <\/em><\/strong>The future of BTC mining and the Bitcoin halving<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n In the past, hackers have used cryptojacking<\/a> malware that\u2019s inserted into a victim’s internet-connected device or cloud-storage account.<\/p>\n The malicious program uses the resources of the device or cloud service to create a virtual machine<\/a> that mines cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n In 2021, Google said some attackers targeting its storage platform users could compromise an account and install mining software within 22 seconds<\/a>.<\/p>\n