One of the reasons why the iPhone can be remotely erased within a few minutes if it is lost is the software encryption used by Apple. If you have set passcode protection on your iPhone, you don’t have to overwrite the 32GB of information that may be present with zeros – the iPhone simply “forgets” the key used and leaves nothing but data mush on the device.
A clever system in itself, which even crypto experts consider to be quite secure thanks to the 256-bit AES encryption used. So far; and apart from the successful Ubuntu– undFraunhofer attacks.
The Russian security specialists at Elcomsoft, a company that has been developing tools to break iOS encryption for months (we reported), once again point out in this entry on their Crackpassword blog the bad habit of many iPhone users of only using a four-digit number combination to protect their iOS device. According to Elcomsoft developer Vladimir Katalov, an iPhone encrypted in this way can only withstand brute force attacks for an average of 20 minutes; an attacker could try all possible combinations in 40 minutes.
Although Elcomsoft only offers its “Phone Password Breaker” for sale to government agencies, there is no harm in protecting your iPhone from unauthorized access with an alphanumeric key.
Source: https://www.iphone-ticker.de/die-durchschnittliche-iphone-verschlusselung-lasst-sich-in-20-minuten-brechen-21338/
