So how quick can an iPhone be hacked and have its entire database of sent, received, and deleted SMS messages stolen? Well apparently the answer to that question is it can be achieved in just 20 seconds reports an article over on engadget via tuaw.

Fortunately though the hackers were two security researches, Ralf-Philipp Weinmann and Vincenzo Iozzo who where performing in the Pwn2Own 2010 hacking contest as stated on zdnet.

And for their auspicious iPhone hacking attempt their prize was $15,000, and no doubt their formula will be passed to Apple for intense scrutiny and no one else.

The guys are keeping just how they did it to themselves which is probably a wise move as we wouldn’t want to see thousands of iPhones suddenly seeing their databases being hijacked would we.