The recent federal raid on the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson isn’t merely an attack by the Trump administration on the free press. It’s also a warning to anyone with a smartphone.
Included in the search and seizure warrant for the raid on Natanson’s home is a section titled “Biometric Unlock,” which explicitly authorized law enforcement personnel to obtain Natanson’s phone and both hold the device in front of her face and to forcibly use her fingers to unlock it. In other words, a judge gave the FBI permission to attempt to bypass biometrics: the convenient shortcuts that let you unlock your phone by scanning your fingerprint or face.
For me at least it’s tap power button 5 times rapidly, rather than holding it, on iPhone.
Or hold power + volume down
Edit: Do keep in mind that this doesn’t reset your phone to Before First Unlock status, so it’s still vulnerable to tools like cellebrite. This only disables Face ID until you enter the passcode again. For better protection, you’d want to fully shut down your phone, which MIGHT protect it from unlocking altogether, or it might not. If they can’t have it unlocked right away, they can get it in a few months or years since you won’t be getting security updates and they do discover new vulnerabilities every now and then.
On my android the 5-tap activates SoS mode. Holding power for a moment gives the power off and lockdown option, as does pressing power+volup simultaneously. Power+voldown appears to be screenshot.
Most of these options will still keep the phone “active” though so I’m not sure about USB based hacks. If encryption is enabled I believe that forcing a reboot/shutdown means the data on the phone isn’t accessible until after unlocking via PIN/password on boot.
Oh yeah, so basically this will only protect from the police forcing you to look at your phone or touch the fingerprint sensor. It doesn’t actually reset to BFU so you do indeed have to shut it down fully to be more protected. I probably should’ve mentioned that in my previous comment