Need to Unlock Someone's iPhone? Get this Black Box!

I recently read an article on Business Insider called "A Little Black Box Makes it Easy to Unlock Almost Any iPhone Even When it's Secured with your Fingerprint" which confirmed that a small black box, called "IP-BOX", is capable of accessing iPhones, provided that the said phone is locked with the ''four-digit code method" (Cook, 2015). The article went on to further explain how the device uses a process known as "bruteforcing" to guess the phone's passcode. Let me explain how it works. Say for instance, you bought an iPhone and decided to lock it with a four digit code. I then steal your brand new iPhone but have no use for it due to the lock that you imposed on it. Hence, i go onto Aliexpress.com and purchase the IP-BOX V5 for just US$139. When I receive the device, I connect it to the stolen iPhone and the IP-BOX automatically enters (one code at a time), every possible four digit code, ranging from 0000 all the way to 9999. A few questions were initially raised in my mind, the first one being, "what about the limit of 10 incorrect passcodes on iPhones?" After further reading of the article, it turned out that the IP-BOX has a secondary connection to the phone's battery, which would cut the power and restart the phone before the phone could recognize the possible hacking. My next question, naturally, was, "well how exactly would the box know when to power off the device?" The article then went on to state that the IP-BOX uses a light sensor to "monitor the levels of light coming out of the phone screen, and detect changes. If it notices a change, that means the screen has been unlocked, and the password was correct" (Cook, 2015, para. 6). Thus, if the sensor did not pick up a change, the box would automatically know that the passcode was incorrect. I have to give props to the creator of this brilliant invention. But, although it can indeed be used to aid people who have miraculously forgotten their four-digit passcode, we have to keep in mind, that it can also encourage theft of iPhones as shown in my example above, and even violation of privacy. What I would advice iPhone owners/users to do, is to choose the longer worded option for a password, rather than the simple four-digit code. By doing this, you would ensure that even if your iPhone was stolen, the thief would not be able to access it as easily as if it had a four-digit passcode.

References

Cook, J. (2015, March 19). A little black box makes it easy to unlock almost any iphone even when it's secured with your fingerprint. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-to-unlock-almost-any-iphone-2015-3

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/IP-BOX-V5-FOR-IPhone-2G-3G-4-4s-5-5c-5s-IPAD-UNLOCK-Passcode-and/927318_32224287130.html