John McAfee
Latest from John McAfee
The Ashley Madison hack: Age of self-delusion
Less than eight hours after the Ashley Madison hack, the company issued a statement informing the public and their traumatized customers that they had closed the security holes that had allowed extraordinarily sensitive data on 37 million people, which if released by the hacker, would be the greatest boon to divorce lawyers since the invention ...
Cameron’s ban on whispering
Private communication systems have been around since the invention of human culture. Many are still in use today and are used almost universally. My wife uses them to great effect. A discrete whisper in my ear while we are at a dinner table with friends, promising provocative events at home if we leave immediately, has ...
The Great Wall St. hack mystery
At 11:32 yesterday morning the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) computers went down, causing a four-hour suspension of transactions. In a four-hour period the NYSE averages about $400 million in trades – a substantial daily loss. The NYSE and Homeland Security both quickly announced that the problem was not due to a cyber attack. At ...
Domain privacy: Watch this
In the security field we are seldom privy to the data upon which world changing decisions are made in advance of the actual decisions. This month, with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), we are in such a position and I cannot pass up the opportunity to point out, very graphically, the overwhelming ...
24 major computer breaches in 30-day period. Time to get real.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hack has acted as a smokescreen to mask a far broader problem that has occurred in the past 30 days. Here’s the full story in headlines (those in italics are included for completeness only and are not counted in the 24 hacks.): April 7th 2015 – Russians Hack White ...
The death of Antivirus and what comes next
I have been watching the various analysts’ and corporate dissections of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) breach. They range from the sublime – “No Comment (the White House)” to the ridiculous – “why were the Social Security numbers not encrypted?” (United States Congressman) Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, after being told that up to 14 million ...
A cyber world in crisis
In the late 60’s I dropped way too much acid. One of the lingering side effects of overindulgence in LSD is an infrequent occurrence of something called a “flashback”. It’s a situation where the world turns upside down – bizarre and incomprehensible for a period of time, just like an original LSD trip. I have ...
Four million ways to lose your secrets
In 1986, I worked for Lockheed Corp. in Sunnyvale, California. I was recommended for a black program (a program that does not openly exist) developing voice recognition systems for advanced aircraft control for the United States Air Force. The problem at that time was that the G forces of which airplanes were capable made simple ...
How the most damaging hack In cyber history was met with little notice
The 14 largest Megachurches in the world range from the Lakewood Church in Houston Texas (45,000 Members) to the Yoido Church in Seoul Korea (253,000 Members). They all denounce homosexuality as a sin. It is comforting to note that the pastors of only two of these churches were members of Adult Friend Finder, (the online ...
The Hacker, the Plane and the TSA
Last month my good friend and security researcher, Chris Roberts of One World Labs, was detained by FBI agents after a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Philadelphia, about which he tweeted comments regarding the network security on his plane. @sno0ose Someone needs to buy the TSA Sniffer dog a better chew toy! — Chris Roberts ...