Unbreakable - by Phillip Shoemaker (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Protect your digital identity against deepfakes, SIM swaps, and AI-driven fraud

Unbreakable: Secure Your Digital Life in a World Built to Breach You is a practical, narrative-driven guide from Phillip Shoemaker, who built and led Apple's App Store review team before becoming CEO of PersonaShield. Drawing on decades of experience tracking threats from early App Store fraud to AI-enabled scams, Shoemaker treats identity, not passwords, as the primary attack surface.

The book blends real-world hack accounts and personal stories from Shoemaker's career at Apple with step-by-step defensive playbooks. Readers gain actionable techniques for reducing exposure to data brokers, preventing SIM-swap attacks, identifying synthetic identities, evaluating privacy policies, and navigating an internet designed to harvest personal information. Each chapter connects specific threat patterns to concrete countermeasures.

Readers will also find:

• Strategies for detecting and defending against AI-generated deepfakes that target both personal and professional communications channels
• Practical step-by-step methods for removing personal information from data broker databases and systematically reducing your digital footprint online
• Guidance on evaluating Terms of Service and privacy policies to identify hidden data-sharing practices and minimize risk
• Techniques for securing mobile platforms against SIM-swap attacks, account takeovers, credential theft, and social engineering schemes
• A framework for building decentralized digital identity practices that reduce reliance on centralized systems vulnerable to large-scale breaches

Written for technology professionals, executives, startup founders, cybersecurity practitioners, policymakers, and everyday consumers, Unbreakable provides a structured approach to safeguarding digital identity against deepfakes, data breaches, SIM swaps, and AI-driven fraud, grounded in how attackers actually exploit modern systems.

From the Back Cover

A digital self-defense guide from the man who built Apple's App Store defenses

Your identity--not your password--is the real target. AI-generated deepfakes can clone your voice from a three-second clip. SIM swaps can hijack your phone number in minutes. Data brokers sell your personal details to anyone willing to pay. Meanwhile, the apps you trust bury exploitative terms in privacy policies designed to confuse you. The threats have evolved, but most security advice has not.

Phillip Shoemaker spent years inside Apple reviewing thousands of apps and watched firsthand how developers exploited user trust. Then he was SIM-swapped and hacked himself. In Unbreakable, he combines personal stories from inside Apple, real-world case studies of modern AI-enabled scams, and step-by-step defensive playbooks to show how digital attacks actually work--and exactly how to stop them.

Whether you are an executive responsible for organizational security, a startup founder handling sensitive data, a cybersecurity practitioner, or someone who simply wants to reduce exposure to data brokers and identity theft, this book delivers a clear, actionable roadmap for taking back control of your digital life in an era when the internet is stacked against you.

About the Author

PHILLIP SHOEMAKER is the CEO of PersonaShield, the platform helping people verify, protect, control, and monetize their digital likeness in the age of AI. Previously, he built and led Apple's App Store review team during its formative years, creating safety and security systems that continue to protect more than a billion users worldwide. Today, he advises startups, contributes to industry standards, and speaks globally on AI safety, digital identity, deepfakes, online trust, and the future of human ownership in an AI-driven world.