Originally posted by robbie carrobie
Now you are simply stating the obvious.
It clearly wasn't obvious to you until I pointed it out.
In the real world people dont change passwords nearly as often as they should and if some dude with a PC can hack an eight digit alphanumeric password in 16 minutes by brute force then how long is someone like a government agency with essentially unlimited resources likely to take to crack a 6 digit one provided it is valid? five and a half years, I don't think so.
I see it is still not obvious to you.
Let me try and explain it again.
A dude with a PC hacking an eight digit alphanumeric password in 16 minutes by brute force, can only do so if the time to test each such password is very short.
If it takes longer to test each password in the iPhone case, then it is impossible for you to know how long a government agency would take unless you know:
a) how long it would take to test each password.
b) how many computers they have available for the task.
You can probably estimate b), but you do not know a) and comparing it to the dude with a PC is does not tell you the answer to a).
However, I do agree with the experts that the estimate is almost certainly wrong, as it was probably made by someone like you who doesn't understand how it works.