Setting up a passcode for your iOS device is one of the first steps you can take to keep your data safe. It prevents access to your device, blocking unauthorized user from accessing your personal data, photographs, contacts, messages, and anything else you have stored inside.

However, that passcode lock is useless when it comes up against a piece of software called XRY from the Swedish security firm Micros Systemation. With XRY, your personal data, call logs, GPS location data, contacts, and even keystrokes can all be extracted and decrypted in under ten minutes.

Micro Systemation sells law enforcement and military organizations the software required to access the devices of criminal suspects or military detainees and extract their personal information. And it’s not just iOS devices that are at risk; the software also works on Android, according to Forbes.

As the video shows, a Micro Systemation application the firm calls XRY can quickly crack an iOS or Android phone’s passcode, dump its data to a PC, decrypt it, and display information like the user’s GPS location, files, call logs, contacts, messages, even a log of its keystrokes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Gb5stnc54

According to the report, the firm uses the same exploits that jailbreakers use to gain access to an iOS device. And once they have access, they can take whatever they want.

Of course, this software isn’t something that anyone can get their hands on, but it’s still pretty worrying to see just how easy it can be for our personal data to fall into the wrong hands.

[via 9to5Mac]