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If you’re looking for a way to securely store and share information, check out Mustbin, a free app designed for security. If keeping track of your important papers is becoming more of a challenge, then you may be interested in Mustbin, a free service that can store your important files in one place.
This app was developed by Brian Shin after Hurricane Sandy destroyed the house of a close friend in New Jersey, including all of his important papers. Shin came up with the idea of developing a free, secure cloud storage service that would let people store their important files in a way that no hurricane could destroy.
What Is Mustbin
Mustbin, as in “Must Be In,” is a cloud-based app to store and share your documents, photos and other digital files, similar to Dropbox. Mustbin promises military-grade security to protect your information.
Mustbin helps you store and keep your important papers organized in bins in the app. Take pictures of your credit cards, tax forms, driver’s license, passport and other important documents and store them in encrypted files in bins within the Mustbin app. Store your passwords, photos, receipts and more in bins on the app. Mustbin keeps your information on your device and syncs it to the Cloud so you can have access to your information whether or not you have access to the Internet.
Mustbin Security
The developer of Mustbin says that its security is certified military grade. See, Mustbin Security: Military-grade. Certified. The developer calls the security Bincryption™ technology: “Mustbin features robust security technology that provides bin-level encryption, AES-256 encryption on every file and end-to-end encryption during cloud sync.”
When you register for an account you are required to select a strong password, answer three security questions and select a four-digit PIN number. You must enter the PIN number to open the app, even if your phone is password protected.
If you forget your password and cannot answer the security questions, your data is gone. There is no alternative for recovery, you can’t request an email for a password reset. Your information will be lost but the chance that your information will fall into the wrong hands is reduced.
The app was launched in November and since that time there have been no reports of Mustbin being hacked.
For more information on the intricacies of Mustbin security, check out Deep Dive – Mustbin Security Architecture: Bin creation, bin contents, sharing, and mobile security
Storing Information Using Mustbin
To get started with Mustbin, download the app and sign up for an account. The service gives you 1 GB of free space. You choose a user name and a password and register your email address. Then you choose three security questions to answer. Finally, you select a four-digit PIN number.
You then begin adding items to the app in bins. You can record all of the items in your wallet so if it’s ever lost or stolen you’ll have a records of its contents. You can add items such as credit cards, passports, business cards, insurance cards, reward cards, driver’s license, receipts and more. You can also store photos, passwords, documents and any other digital files that you want to keep in Mustbin.
The app walks you through the process with a handy guide. You can also create your own custom bins if the categories provided by the app don’t cover what you want to store.
You add information by pressing the + button. To add a credit card you name the card and take a picture of both the front and back of the card. You then enter the number, expiration date and security code on the back of the card. Photo recognition would have been handy here to avoid having to type in the numbers, but at least you have the information stored in two different ways.
Sharing Information Using Mustbin
Mustbin allows you to share your bins with others using the app. To share, press the person icon and enter the person’s Mustbin user name or email address. The person with whom you’re sharing your Mustbin files must be a registered Mustbin user.
Retrieving Your Information
Mustbin lets you access your information efficiently from within the bins in your app. In the event that your wallet is lost or stolen, you will have a record of what you lost if you’ve stored the information in Mustbin.
You can also press the I Lost My Wallet section under Actions, which suggests that you file a police report and take a picture of the report to store in Mustbin.
Availability
Mustbin is a free app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch running iOS 7 and is available in the iTunes App Store.
Your Thoughts
Do you like the idea of securely storing your important information in the cloud? Are you concerned about losing the paper versions of your important documents? Have you tried Mustbin? Let us know in the Comments section below.
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Hardcore!
No password, no more data. Wow.
I am not sure I am ready for that level or security yet, but I can see that there is a need for it. It is just too easy to hack most of the systems we think are secure!
Interesting find for sure!
thanks Carolyn
ashley
Hi Ashley, Yes, with so many reports of sites being hacked (Kickstarter over the weekend, for example), it’s great to learn about Mustbin that has such a high level of security. You really would want that if you’re going to store such sensitive information in the app.
You do get a chance to access the app through the three security questions if you forget your password. But I actually like that they don’t offer a password reset option via email. How many people do you know who have had their email hacked?
That being said, storing your private information anywhere requires faith, which is why you have to be certain that security is tight. I’ve never been in the military and I’m not a security expert, but the assurances provided by Mustbin seemed very impressive to me.
I took a picture of my money and it was a good thing, because sure enough the next day it was gone….
I will give it a try, sounds like some pretty serious security.
Have you guys thawed out yet? Spring training weather here…in case you were wondering…:).
Lol, Bill, great idea. Make sure you file that police report and attach pictures of the missing cash.
Not only are we among sky-high piles of snow, more is predicted for tomorrow. I’m trying to remember why exactly I moved away from Tampa but I can’t seem to recall the reasons…
Another cloud sharing platform which is certified, certified by who? There is always a risk for files shared in the cloud and the same thing apply for Dropbox, Google Drive and any other service.
Excellent point, Kaloyan. You’re absolutely right, each person must make his/her own decision about how they will entrust their personal information. Is it more secure at home in a safe? Is it more secure in Mustbin? Is it more secure with Dropbox or Google Drive? How much access to the information do you need? Do you like that the information can’t be retrieve via an email password reset? It’s up to you to decide.
Mustbin is like Dropbox and has a security level of military grade and it is certified.It is only for iOS and that is disappointing as most of the people now use android operating system rather than iOS. I will try it myself to see that it is as good as it promises to be.
Hi James, You’re right, Android owners can’t use Mustbin yet. The good news is that the developer plans to launch a Mustbin Android app later this year. Stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech for news when the app is launched.
Hi Carolyn,
Military grade encryption looks awesome. I am sure we will hate losing the password. On the other hand, yes an app was needed to store sensitive documents. Sad that it is not available on Android 🙁
Hi Ashvini, I contacted the developer about bringing the app to Android. According to the developer, they are going to launch an Android version later this year. They are building the app from scratch, it’ won’t be merely a modified version of the iPhone app.
That’s some heavy duty stuff Carolyn and I can only imagine the things people lost during Hurricane Sandy. Most of my important papers are in my safety deposit box at the bank and that’s about as secure as I’m going to get and unless the bank is destroyed I think I’m pretty good.
I don’t know if I would trust something like that myself because we all know nothing is ever 100% safe. I’ve heard of some government agencies that have been hacked into so although I’m sure they’ve got this about as tight as they can and what they’re doing is definitely to benefit others I would have to give that much more consideration.
Great share though and they’re always coming up with new things for us aren’t they!
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Funny that you mention safety deposit boxes at the bank. Today I was reading Empty Mansions, the story of Huguette Clark (great book!) and learned about her very valuable jewelry getting stolen from her safety deposit box in a bank two separate times! I guess nothing is completely safe.
But Mustbin won’t help anyone with jewelry.
Yes, not everyone will feel comfortable with storing their important information in the Cloud no matter what the security is. Hackers never seem to take a vacation and, you’re right, even government agencies are being hacked. It makes you wonder how long the Internet will be usable…
I’m going to have to look into this one. I have so many photos, I’m filling up DropBox! I also use Keeper to store my passwords to my accounts. Do you think Mustbin would be good for that?
Hi Carol, Yes, limited storage space is definitely an issue with Dropbox. And Mustbin only gives you 1 GB of space so that isn’t the best solution if you have a lot of photos.
I recommend Flickr for photo storage online because it gives you a whopping 1 TB of space (that’s 1000 GB of space) for free! Here’s a link to my recent article on Flickr: https://wonderoftech.com/flickr-photo-storage/
Mustbin would be a good alternative for storing passwords though. Passwords wouldn’t take up a lot of space so You could store a lot of passwords in Mustbin.
Great app mustbin!, but it’s not available for Android which disappoints me, i found this app really helpful for me.
Thanks admin for such a great info 🙂 .
Hi Ratz, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You’ll be glad to learn that the developer is working on an Android version of Mustbin. Stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech for news about its release later this year.