Smartphone security is an issue of paramount importance, and this is becoming more and more obvious as millions of people get smartphones and trust them with their personal emails, messages, photos, banking details and health data. However, when it comes to personal understanging, you fully realize how much sensitive data you have stored on that phone after you lose him or after it gets stolen.Such stories of theft often come with revealing details, and here is one that comes fresh off a report about an alleged heroin dealer and his iPhone serving as the evidence. The judge refused evidence after prosecutors in New York confusingly claimed that the conflicting statements that the suspects iPhone could be hacked independently, while at the same time saying that Apple's help might be needed. Alongside with all that discussion, an interesting detail surfaced from U.S. Department of Homeland Security special agent David Bauer who said that a new device called an IP box is the way to easily hack an iPhone's passcode.

Such devices are - as it turns out - easy to find to those who are looking, and cost $100 to $200. What they do is run through all the possible 4-digit code combinations on an iPhone to crack it in less than 17 hours. This makes it extremely easy to crack many people's phones, especially if those people have not taken the care to use the option for a 6-digit passcode or to allow the phone to erase all data after 10 failed attempts to enter the code.

The moral of this story is for us, end-users, to simply make sure we're using the best possible means of protection on our phones. The fingerprint scanner is a great start, and when asked about a backup PIN, it would be wise to use more than four digits and enable other safeguards against breaches into your personal space.

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