UPDATED 08:00 EDT / AUGUST 11 2015

John McAfee’s just too mental for Intel NEWS

Exclusive: John McAfee to disrupt SSL certificate space with company offering unlimited licensing

Cybersecurity legend John McAfee is seeking to disrupt the SSL certificate business with a new company that will offer a combination of both world class service combined with pricing that is not even remotely matched by the big names in the business at scale.

Catering to both the retail and enterprise market, the new business goes by the name of BlackCert and provides digital SSL certificates that secure devices, servers, apps and networks with the highest grade product in the industry; if you’re not familiar with the concept, digital certificates protect private information that is passed to a website, such as credit card numbers, passwords and other sensitive transactions.

BlackCert has been staffed with what company claims is the best in the business including a top security team for 24/7 support, as well as access to “key operatives” that first built the digital SSL certificates industry under the Verisign banner.

blackcertThat sounds all very good in theory, but there are plenty of other companies that provide similar services and promises; where BlackCert will literally disrupt the industry is that along with $1 million liability protection with each certificate, every certificate is offered with unlimited server licensing, eliminating the need to pay for certificates per server, saving money, making administration easier and saving management time.

Currently companies such as Symantec Corp. charge customers per server, so if you had five servers or 10 servers catering for an application using a SSL certificate, you’d pay per server, whereas BlackCert certificates are offered on an unlimited use basis, meaning a customer could use each certificate on as many servers they desired to support the application at no additional cost.

Security analyst John Casaretto, who has been working with BlackCert’s parent company Future Tense Central for the launch, spoke to SiliconANGLE exclusively, saying that “the opportunity to take an important industry by storm was the catalyst for all of this.”

“We have a lot of work ahead of us, and McAfee’s mission of privacy, security and freedom are central to what we are doing,” Casaretto explained. “Ideas are the easy part, the trick is in taking these ideas and making them into a material success; that’s what we’re doing with BlackCert.”

Disruption

Disruption is a well overused word that is bandied about like confetti at a wedding in the tech industry to the point that it has become nearly clichéd, but what is being offered is without question disruptive in its pricing model alone, let alone the promise of things like a 30 day money back guarantee and 24/7 support from a man who probably knows more about the need for security than just about any man of the planet (both in business and his often colorful personal life), John McAfee.

blackcert2McAfee told SiliconANGLE that “BlackCert is going to make a difference in the world of web security, financial transactions, privacy and identity,” but the company isn’t going to stop at world class, unrestricted licensed digital SSL certificates for servers, with plans to make “an element about the future that bears description” as Casaretto put it, taking digital SSL certificates into the greater realm of the Internet of Things (IoT).

We’re working on a proprietary technology that will make personal certificates extremely affordable, and thus embeddable into everyday objects,” Casaretto went on.

“Imagine something like the pen you use being certified as YOUR pen by digital means” Casaretto explained, before adding “that may be a bit into the future, but the technology we’re working on could provide cheap digital SSL certificates for that very purpose.”

Attitude, leadership, service, price, McAfee: this is what makes BlackCert different from other providers currently in the marketplace,” noted Casaretto.

The BlackCert site is up with a preview of what’s being offered this week, before a full launch coming shortly.

Disclosure: John McAfee contributes a weekly column to SiliconANGLE.


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