Question: If I set my SE to wipe itself after 10 failed login attempts. does it mean that it will erase itself with ten incorrect logins in a row, or ten overall?
I take it to mean 10 failed attempts before the next successful attempt. Once a successful attempt is made, it resets. That's my understanding of it.
It may reset itself after a period of time without attemps. I think there's a warning where you would have to wait a while before trying again. I keep mine toggled off.
Thanks @Ledsteplin for the response. Yeah, your answer makes sense - However I discovered that after 5 failed attempts the machine locks itself for a minute. Then I read that after the 6th attempt it locks for 15 minutes, then every subsequent attempt that fails locks the device for an hour. So it seems highly unlikely that anyone would actually get to the tenth try, not without working on it for an entire day. And by that time I could erase the device remotely, if I wanted to, with the "Find My iPhone" on iCloud from my PC. I think I'll leave it toggled off also. Thanks again!