A Russian forensic experts team named ElcomSoft was recently able to crack Apple’s iOS 4 iPhone Encryption including backup file encryption and on device data security. The team was also involved in providing software services that are used by law enforcement and certain three-letter agencies. They used a GPU-accelerated Phone Password Breaker Tool to remove protection for Apple and BlackBerry backups. After the release of iOS 4, Apple began providing 256-bit encryption to secure iPhone devices. Since this encryption has now been cracked, we wonder what move Apple is going to take for provide better security for its users. The possibility of 512-bit encryption is there. Katalov explains: Decryption is not possible without having access to the actual device because we need to obtain the encryption keys that are stored in (or computed by) the device and are not dumped or stored during typical physical acquisition According to the security team, decryption can not be done without having access to the actual device as they have to get encryption keys stored in the device. The keys include: Keys computed from the unique device key (UID), which is believed to be embedded in the hardware and is not extractable (so-called keys 0×835 and 0x89B);User passcode key which is derived from users’ passcode using the unique device key (UID);Escrow key(s) which are derived from escrow pairing records using the unique device key (UID);Effaceable storage area which stores number of encryption keys. For more details you can check the official website here. Stay tuned for more news and info by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and/or subscribing to our RSS feed. Authors: