My seven-year-old has quite literally used a basic combination of simple techniques to compromise my iPod Touch. What's even funnier is that she did this in just thirty minutes flat.

I think this is just wonderful! For months, I've wondered about the consequences of incorrect passcode entries on a locked iPod Touch. Having gone through the nightmare of locking myself out of my cell phone once, I was a bit leery of finding out how the device would defend itself.

Above: After one round of brute forcing the iPod, my daughter earned a one-minute timeout

Enter my daughter. Apparently she'd been watching me use my iPod, and she'd paid particularly close attention to the parts where I was unlocking it... She had started her information gathering with a lowly trick- she was shoulder-surfing me!

She'd not gotten the passcode down cold in the few glances here and there throughout the day- she did better than I however; since I didn't even notice her grabbing those glances while I punched in the passcode.

She then challenged me out of the blue, "I bet I can guess the password on your iPod!" - and the photos show what we went through for the the next half-hour.

After several guesses, the iPod Touch locked and informed us that she'd have to try again in one minute. I now knew that the iPod would continue to increment the timeouts on failed passwords as we went along.

Being that my daughter could most likely play with the iPod all day long I was curious as to how far she'd take this incremental protection.

Sure enough, she wrangled the device from my grasp after a bit more than a minute had passed, and stabbed at the numeric icons on the screen in a determined manner once again. In a huff, she held it up...

Locked out for five minutes now... She taunted me, by saying she had it now, and was going to get it the next time. She told me the numbers she would try. I was amazed that by this time, she had three of the four numbers, and was just a bit off in their order in the passcode!

Above: A second flurry of incorrect guesses and its five minutes of waiting this time

The five minutes passed with much debate between us- I was convinced that she'd only keep testing the iPod's ability to make one wait for additional input, while she just knew that victory was hers.

Again she tried various combinations, getting oh-so-close, but missing the last crucial digit altogether until the device threw up yet another crimson warning banner that informed us we'd need to chill for fifteen minutes now before another onslaught.

To her credit, she's been using computers since she was about 18 months old, and she is quite clever and persistent. I didn't foresee her giving up any time soon...

My daughter thought it through during this part, and I gave her only the single hint: that she needs just one number which she apparently never saw me entering on the device. She kept pondering and pestering me to hold the iPod, to keep checking on its countdown...

Above: The iPod says to wait fifteen minutes before trying again now

She had been brute-forcing passcodes with attacks enhanced by known passcode digits for over twenty minutes now, and after the fifteen minutes were up? What would this kid be doing then- relishing a victory or stubbornly poking along ad inifinitum?

She grabbed the iPod, and punched in the passcode- exclaiming, "I got it!". I was overwhelmed in part by shock, and to a large extent, by amazement and pride.

I'd been hacked by a kid. My casual use of an electronic device was not going unnoticed to the most minute detail- couple that with about a half hour's worth of determination, and we have ourselves a fun time.

I'm also glad that I'd finally gotten to see what this thing would do on failed passcode attempts...at least we didn't have to call some support center somewhere.

Not wanting to see how far she could go with the device in an unlocked state, I changed my passcode immediately upon getting the iPod back into my hands. Ahh good times...