A US federal prosecution now under way is believed to be the first of its kind, targeting an Atlanta resident accused of wiping his phone using a built-in duress passcode as border agents searched it.
Samuel Tunick was stopped for a secondary inspection at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport in January 2025, returning from a holiday abroad. Prosecutors allege that when he handed over a passcode to agents, it triggered a factory reset rather than unlocking the device.
