Wednesday, April 4, 2012

iPhone, Android passcodes easy to break, security firm shows

Having a passcode on your iPhone or Android phones can probably secure your privacy whenever you left your phone not in use. But the moment your phone is stolen, you cannot guarantee that this passcode will secure your privacy as according tot this news, passcode can easily be cracked. I myself have lost my newly bought iPhone and wasn’t able to retrieve it, and when I read this news I realized that I will definitely not retrieve it again. Just the same, always keep your phone secure by having a passcode on it.
Repost from GMA Online News
Think the passcode on your iPhone or Android phone is a tough nut to crack? Better think again: a Swedish security firm showed it can crack the code in minutes.
Micro Systemation, a Swedish security firm that helps police and military crack digital security systems, released a video showing the recovery of the code with an app called XRY.
A report on tech site CNET said the video demo, titled “Recovering the Passcode from an iPhone,” shows a company spokesman using 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 CNET report added.
The CNET report cited similarities between the XRY app and jailbreaking the phone.
On the other hand, CNET cited mobile security provider Lookout, which said both iOS and Android could beef up their security as they are both potentially threatened by rogue apps and Web-based malware. — TJD, GMA News