A security flaw in the iPhone allows strangers to bypass the handset’s lock screen with a few button presses.

The quick method to circumvent an iPhone’s passcode-protected lock screen:
  • tap the “Emergency Call” button,
  • then enter three # signs,
  • hit the green Call button
  • and immediately press the Lock button.
That simple procedure gives a snoop full access to the Phone app on the iPhone, which contains the address book, voicemail and call history.

Apple:  “We’re aware of this issue and we will deliver a fix to customers as part of the iOS 4.2 software update in November."
 
 
The iPhones generally store more data than other high-end phones -- and investigators (plus supicious spouses) can tap in to that information for evidence.

And while some phone users routinely delete information from their devices, that step is seldom as final as it seems.  When you hit the delete button, it's never really deleted.

Every time an iPhone user closes out of the built-in mapping application, the phone snaps a screenshot and stores it.

iPhone photos are embedded with GEO tags and identifying information, meaning that photos posted online might not only include GPS coordinates of where the picture was taken, but also the serial number of the phone that took it.

Even more information is stored by the applications themselves, including the user's browser history.  Clearing out user histories isn't enough to clean the device of that data.  Just as users can take and store a picture of their iPhone's screen, the phone itself automatically shoots and stores hundreds of such images as people close out one application to use another.

The keyboard cache logs everything that you type in to learn autocorrect so that it can correct a user's typing mistakes. Apple doesn't store that cache very securely, so someone with know-how could recover months of typing in the order in which it was typed, even if the e-mail or text it was part of has long since been deleted.

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As the communications device grows in popularity, technology experts and US law enforcement agencies are devoting increasing efforts to understanding their potential for forensics investigators.

While police have tracked criminals by locating their position via conventional mobile phone towers, iPhones offer far more information, say experts.

"There are a lot of security issues in the design of the iPhone that lend themselves to retaining more personal information than any other device," said Jonathan Zdziarski, a former computer hacker who now teaches US law enforcers how to retrieve data from mobile phones.

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