Russian firm claims to have cracked iPhone encryption

Elcomsoft says its tool can crack the encryption used within Apple's iOS operating system

A Russian security firm has claimed that its software can successfully decode data encrypted on Apple's iPhone 4 and 3GS.

The firm, Elcomsoft, claims to be the first company in the world to achieve this. It has made its password and encryption-cracking tool commercially available.

However, the company's CEO, Vladimir Katalov, said that the toolkit will not be sold to just anyone.

"To make sure those tools do not fall into the wrong hands, we decided to offer them only to established law enforcement, forensic and intelligence agencies as well as select government organisations."

Katalov added that anyone with a desire to completely protect his or her privacy should not use Apple's device, or any other form of smartphone.

"No privacy purist should ever use an iPhone (or any other smartphone, probably). iPhone devices store or cache humungous amounts of information about how, when, and where the device has been used. Pictures, emails and text messages included deleted ones, calls placed and received are just a few things to mention."

He also said that thanks to GPS capabilities iPhones store a history of the user's locations complete with geographic coordinates and timestamps.