Lockdown Mode is a sometimes overlooked feature of Apple devices that broadly make them harder to hack. A court record indicates the feature might be effective at stopping third parties unlocking someone's device. At least for now.
Just tested it and can confirm it works. For those that don’t have their phone handy or are worried about trying it:
Just 5 presses is enough. You could do 6, or just spam the power button to make sure you’ve got at least 5 in. Any presses after the 5th don’t do anything different
when you do it, it opens up a menu with options to:
Power off
Make an emergency phone call to 911 (there is no option to select an emergency contact. It just calls 911 immediately)
Show emergency medical info
Afterwards, you need to enter in your pin/passcode to unlock your phone. I have Face ID and the ability to unlock my phone via my Apple Watch. Both methods are disabled until I unlock my phone with my code.
Just tested it and can confirm it works. For those that don’t have their phone handy or are worried about trying it: