A report came out last fall suggesting that repeating one number in the iPhone's four-digit security PIN made for better protection than using all unique numbers. However, that little trick doesn't seem to go very far with Micro Systemation, a Swedish security firm that helps police and military around the world crack digital security systems.
The company released a video last week that shows just how easy it is to break into a passcode-protected iPhone or Android device.
The video, "Recovering the Passcode from an iPhone," tapes a demonstration where a company spokesman uses an application called XRY and accesses the contents of the mobile phone in less than two minutes. User information, such as GPS location, call history, contacts, and messages, can all be read.
The way the XRY software works is a lot like jailbreaking into the phone, according to Forbes, which talked to the company about the application. Rather than looking for vulnerabilities made by the manufacturer, the software searches for security flaws by guessing every combination of numbers to find the correct code.
"Every week a new phone comes out with a different operating system and we have to reverse engineer them," Micro Systemation marketing director Mike Dickinson told Forbes. "We're constantly chasing the market."
