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The insane life of former fugitive and eccentric cybersecurity legend John McAfeehttps://www.businessinsider.in/the-insane-life-of-former-fugitive-and-eccentric-cybersecurity-legend-john-mcafee/john-mcafee-was-born-in-the-uk-in-the-mid-1940s-his-parents-moved-to-roanoke-virginia-at-a-young-age-/slidelist/48192821.cms2021-07-26T12:47:33+05:30

The insane life of former fugitive and eccentric cybersecurity legend John McAfee

Jul 26, 2021, 12:47 IST

John McAfee was born in the UK in the mid 1940s. His parents moved to Roanoke, Virginia at a young age.

His early life was likely tough for the young man. His father, who worked as a road surveyor, was an alcoholic. When McAfee was 15, his father committed suicide, a fact McAfee says he wakes up with everyday.

McAfee went to Roanoke College where he also took up drinking. But the younger McAfee was also a shrewd entrepreneur at a young age. His first business sold magazines door to door which he says made him a small fortune.

He began working at a company that coded punch-card systems in the late '60s. This taught him the basics of early computing. Using this information, he landed a job at Missouri Pacific Railroad, where he helped the company use a newfangled IBM computer system to help calibrate train schedules.

While at Missouri Pacific Railroad he began to dabble with harder drugs. He reportedly would go to work many days while tripping on LSD. One day he was sold a bag of a psychedelic known as DMT. As the story goes, McAfee snorted a line of the drug, felt nothing, and then decided to do the whole bag. Then all hell broke loose. He freaked out, ran outside, and hid behind a trashcan.

McAfee moved to Silicon Valley in the 1970s. He held numerous jobs at various tech companies (including a stint at NASA’s Institute for Space Studies), all the while abusing drugs and alcohol. It wasn’t until 1983 that he got sober. He was working at the company Omex, and found his daily routine to be snorting coke at his desk and drinking a bottle of scotch. He says he felt alone and scared, and finally decided to seek out help.

In the 1980s, McAfee worked at Lockheed. At the time, computers were still relatively new. In 1986 the first computer virus hit PCs. He read about these new programs that infiltrated computers and decided to start his own company fight back.

McAfee Associates took off. By the end of the 1980s, the company was making $5 million a year, and some of the biggest companies in the world were using his anti-virus platform.

McAfee quickly became even more successful, largely because of a computer virus called Michelangelo that hit the scene in 1992. McAfee called it one of the worst viruses to date, estimating it would infect as many as 5 million computers. At the time, computer anti-virus companies weren’t a product most people bought. Thanks to Michelangelo, there was a growing fever to protect themselves from the virus.

Though only about tens of thousands of computers were infected, Michelangelo propelled McAfee to go public and it turned into a multimillion dollar business.

In 1994, McAfee set his sights for greener pastures and resigned from McAfee. Two years later he sold his shares, which gave him about $100 million.

Following his resignation, McAfee kept a relatively low profile. He would give young startups advice, lecture at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and also work on projects of his own. He’s worked on two social network projects called PowWow and Tribal Voice, although neither were able to hit the mainstream.

Source: MIT Technology Review

Following his resignation, McAfee kept a relatively low profile. He would give young startups advice, lecture at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and also work on projects of his own. He’s worked on two social network projects called PowWow and Tribal Voice, although neither were able to hit the mainstream.

In 2008, however, the economic collapse caught up to him. One report said that his fortune had shrunk from $100 million to as little as $4 million.

In the late 2000s, McAfee decided to sell his land and move to Belize. There he wanted to go into the world of antibiotics. He believed that with the help of microbiologist Allison Adonizio he could build a product that used plants to combat illnesses. The company was called Quorumex.

But things in Belize got hairy. McAfee reportedly began doing dealings with shady characters. Rumors that he was making drugs began to percolate. He also began getting increasingly paranoid.

In Belize he frequented a saloon known as Lover’s Bar. He would reported go there everyday and watch the people go in and out. He slowly withdrew from everything else. He became obsessed watching the people in this poor part of town. After six months he wrote that he no longer had any connection to society.

In 2012, he was considered a person of interest when his neighbor Gregory Faull was murdered. McAfee fled after being questioned by the Belize government.

McAfee was arrested in Guatemala. This could have reportedly been because of Vice, which flew down two reporters to interview him. By mistake, Vice posted pictures of McAfee that still contained GPS coordinates attached to them. Shortly after these events, Guatemala police caught up with McAfee, arresting him on charges of illegal entry to the country. While detained, McAfee suffered a series of heart-related health issues. Ultimately, he was expelled from Guatemala and sent back to the US.

Following this, a media frenzy ensued. Everyone wanted to know who he was, where he was going, and if he was crazy.

McAfee didn't make things any easier for himself. In 2013, he uploaded a bizarre video entitled "How To Uninstall McAfee Antivirus," which showed him surrounded by scantily clad women while trying to uninstall the software he invented, which he denounced after leaving the company. The video also showed guns and allusions to drugs and drug use, although it was undoubtedly meant to be some sort of parody.

Ever since, McAfee has kept a sporadic public persona. He drove to Portland, Oregon in 2013, where he reportedly still lives. He now sometimes blogs about security, privacy, and freedom.

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