Think your credit card information and other data stored on your iPhone 3GS is safe? Think again. Even though the latest version of the device is the first to be encrypted it's pretty much useless against hackers, according to a security expert.
In fact, it's so easy to crack encryption on the iPhone 3GS that information can be had for the taking in just two minutes, Jonathan Zdziarski told Wired in an interview.
"It is kind of like storing all your secret messages right next to the secret decoder ring," Zdziarski told the Wired. "I don't think any of us [developers] have ever seen encryption implemented so poorly before, which is why it's hard to describe why it's such a big threat to security."
Zdziarski knows what he's talking about; he's been hacking since the age of 8, is an iPhone developer, and a research scientist who specializes in mobile device forensics.
By using common jailbreaking tools, it would take hackers a grand total of 2 minutes to get live data, and about 45 minutes to make an entire raw disk image, the Web site noted.
Zdziarski also said that once a hacker starts to get data from the phone, the iPhone starts to "decrypt the data on its own."
Now Apple can add this headache to its recent litany of woes which include exploding iPods and suicidal Chinese iPhone subcontractors.
