Anyone who has seen that video, or read any of the interview articles conducted with him will know that John McAfee is more than just “a character”.
Having working in information security since 2008, my brushes with him have been minimal, and until the video was published, I was not really aware of him much. However this week I have been in Las Vegas for the Black Hat, Def Con and BSides Las Vegas events, and the whisper went around the former that John was in town and would be making an appearance.
Along with Eleanor and Victoria from Infosecurity Magazine, we dashed back to the Tuscany, where BSides Las Vegas was taking place, in time to find the man himself delivering the closing keynote. The talk itself only really went on for 20 minutes, where he mostly talked about his experiences in Belize and how after being asked for a donation, he said he initally refused, and later he donated computers to the Government which contained keystroke malware and hired teenagers to monitor what was happening. These will eventually be released upon his passing he explained.
What else? Well at an event such as BSides, which asked why he was speaking there and not a larger conference, he praised the work of Anonymous and to Intel Security “for dropping my name”.
McAfee said: “You will know me from press reports and as a paranoid maniac. But you cannot have freedom without privacy, and the truth is without privacy you cannot have freedom. Privacy is circumspect and the authorities know your name and what food you like, this is your choice and closer to being human the more we reveal on ourselves and about ourselves.”
He pointed the finger at “internet giants”, naming Google and Facebook specifically, saying they “know what you are doing and where you are where buying and your likes and dislikes”, and called it a tragedy, “as they know everything on everyone”.
He blamed the capture of 1.2 billion identities on people, saying what “happened is we do not give a shit and we allowed technology to run away with itself as we do not care, and we cannot we reverse it”. He said: “We have lost privacy and we are losing more every day. Without freedom is there humanity? Is there a mankind, who is free?”
Moving on to technology, he said he started Future Tense Security systems and was involved in creating products, which will tell users what permissions you are giving to applications, as “some Bible applications allow to switch on microphone, do things without thinking and allow technology to control aspects of our lives”.
In a rowdy Q&A session, McAfee was unsurprisingly asked what he thought of the anti-virus industry he once worked so hard to establish. He called it dead as it is “based on an algorithm that cannot keep up with the malicious working of humans today”.
He called on delegates at the conference to “take responsibility for the things we do” and said that if you make a sacrifice on privacy for little bits of convenience, “then there is nothing technology can do t
o help us, we need more self responsibility”.
McAfee, who surprised the audience by claiming that he was now 68 while appearing in combat trousers and with bleached blonde hair, closed by telling delegates to “stand up for yourself and not take it anymore”, and for people to complain, picket or just “take some action”, that we should collectively say no, and that we want our freedom and privacy back.
The appearance was fleeting and for a time, it set the internet alight. McAfee is more of a character than most I have come across, and the legend does seem to go ahead of him. When and where he will appear again I don’t know, he did claim to be building products and had hired a 13 year old with two associate degrees, but the issue is that while he is liked in some circles, others may struggle to take him seriously.
At least he made the effort though, and after a tough time in Belize and with a story to tell and a message to bring, perhaps the security industry is not ready to dismiss John McAfee just yet.
