John McAfee on U.S. Cybersecurity: We Are Not Number One(Audio)

is taking Stock, my co host Kathleen Hayes. And joining us is David Garrity. He is the principal at g v A Research. He is also a columnist for Investor PDA. And joining us now is that John McAfee. John McAfee, as I said, first commercial program for computer security. He's worked for NASA, Lockheed, uh, and he I want to welcome him now. He is the incoming chairman and incoming chief executive of m g T Capital. John McAfee, thank you very much for being with us. Well, thanks for

having me to him. Yeah, I gotta I gotta first say that, um. You know when I mentioned the people that you would be coming in and we'd be speaking to you. Uh, there was this kind of blurring of the line between your personal life and your business life. And I'm wondering if you can clarify any of the issues.

And I know we only have about nine minutes, so that's not going to take is not gonna be that long, but can you clarify some of the issues that related to your time and I guess believe Guatemala and and also what you're currently doing, what you're up to. Okay, the clarify my time, my time and belife, I'm afraid we'll never get clarified. A share Time is coming out with a movie, a ninety minute movie on the twenty

four this month. Um and it's it's actually it was co produced by a general named Jeff Wise, who is one of the people who was made a life career out of trashing me so and and in this movie, apparently not only am I linked to the murder that they wanted to link me to in police, but I think multiple more in police. So it's it's liable to get very interesting. Um but but polices, it's the third world Banana Republic, and um uh, you can go down there and make any story you want if you if

you pay your interviews, which have time did so. They had a story in mind and created a fiction my business life. I've been in cybersecurity forever. Um, not forever, I mean for forty eight years, um, before it was even called cybersecurity. It's it's the one thing I love. Um. I love my personal freedom and my privacy, and um, cybersecurity is the is the rock on which all that rests in this today and age. So um mgt uh.

When I when I became the CEO, uh, we throughout all the existing products and projects and became a pure cybersecurity farm. And I think we have some of the best, um certainly the most up to date and avant garde cybersecurity products on the planet. Just as google, google became a verb that means to search, McAfee is a name, a word like that. It's what you associate with computer security, online security. What about What is the technology though, that

is going to set this new venture you've joined apart? Okay, Well, here's the thing. I invented the current technology it's based. It started with anti virus technology and branched out into a whole system of programs involved in finding malware. But by the time you find malware, it's too late. It's already in your system. As an example, the Office of Personnel Management for the federal government was hacked in two thousand and thirteen. Twenty one million records were taken. They

didn't find out until two thousand and fifteen. So all of our products today are are reactive. Um I am developing an entire line of proactive products. All of my friends are hackers. It kind of odd. I started off fighting hackers, but as I got older, I guess I got some sort of grudging respect, and they asked me to actually keynote def Con two years ago, which is the Worldwide Hacking Convention. Uh. And I've actually hired a bunch of hackers to help me. Why because they're the

ones doing the hacking. I mean, if if you're going to build the best bank fault, you're gonna hire the best bank vault cracker, aren't you, because otherwise you're gonna miss something. So the proactive products are actually catching hackers within the first few seconds as I start sniffing your systems. It takes hackers months to get what they want, and for the first few days they're just probing around. Well, since I know how hackers work, and since the people

I've hired to know how hackers work. Within ten seconds of a hackers sniffing your system, we've identified him, we found out where he lives, we found out what technique he's using, and we send an instant message to the I T managers saying you've got a hacker on Poart eighties in Russia. Do something. Now, we don't do anything, it's up to that. But but what we're doing, we

are the alarm company hacker in your system. So this is infinitely preferable to waiting until the mail work gets in, destroys your database or shuts everything down and demands a hundred thousand dollars to bring it back up before they can even plant the mail where we say they're here,

shut them down. John. In terms of some of the people that you brought on, Chris Anderson Agia, your your chief technology officer at MGT S talks about trying to leverage social networks in terms of the security products that you're bringing out. Is there anything that you would care to discuss about how social networks are figuring cominently in terms of these preventative products that you're putting out well, Uh, I know it mostly is Egypt. When you mentioned his

named Eric Anderson, I go, who is he? Because I've known him as Egypt for years. That's his hacker name. He's one of those brilliant programmers I've ever met. He was He was responsible for all of the artificial intelligence for Grand Theft Auto five, for example, one of the most successful games of all time. Brilliant. Um. What he has developed is is a platform using social encryption, which is a brand new concept and it will eventually replace

the Internet, I'm sure of it. Uh, but social networks that good heavens, what can you say about it? I mean, for example, Facebook, Um, kids are going to Facebook to get news. Now, well, half the news on Facebook is written by satire sites, which it's really not satire when you when you when you say, you know, zombies just invaded at Walmart in Lexington, Tennessee and eight three people

and it all sounds legit, right. So, um, I think young kids are getting smarter because they're recognizing that, you know, there's a lot of people trying to fool me out there. Um, and old people are getting dumber by putting information on social media, which is going to come back and bite you and you go, how did that happen? Well, you told the world basically, so um where it's going I do not know, but I know that Facebook and Twitter

are just the beginning. And as we as we get into the virtual reality systems that are being built by Japan and China, and I've tried many of them, unbelievable, the world is gonna change radically. I mean, we're gonna be having remote relationships with you know, bodily contact, you know, when one person's halfway around the planet. I wonder if you could speak a little bit about Intel, because talking about securing your identity, you're trying to secure your name.

Intel purchased McAfee. You had already left the company by that time. What is going on between you and Intel? Right now? There is only one piece of paper signed by John McAfee the individual, and John McAfee associates the company, and I signed both of them where I only gave rights to McAfee anti virus, that one name, that one thing. Intel has rolled it out into every product in the world. And I'm not mad, and I would never have sued them over that. But when they told me I couldn't

use my name. Well, I'm thinking, well, maybe I can make you not choose not use my name either, because you don't have the right so and I didn't. I didn't want to call it McAfee, John McAfee. It's my identity. I mean, some people know me um as John McAfee. So who knows what the courts will make up at the courts are mysterious affairs, John mc You are pushing for the government to create a cyber security defense strategy. What's the number one thing that the US government that

the next presidented States should do? Okay, well, this is very very topical. I went on RT yesterday and called President Obama clueless because at the G twenty summit the day before, he said America is the most advanced nation in the world for cybersecurity, way ahead of China and Russia. And he said that the Nation States must work together

to restrict the growth of cyber weaponry. Okay, so the first thing I said was, if we are in fact the most advanced nation in the world, then we're all doomed. For example, a fifteen year old boy four months ago hacked into the FBI and walked off with every undercover agents photo fingerprints, name, social Security number and address UM and and so yes we are we are not number one. And secondly, this is not a nation stage issues. John McAfee, we thank you so much for joining us. You're gonna

have to come back and continue this conversation. I'll forget it by them, but thank you very much. Like John McAfee, Executive Chairman and CEO mg T Capital Investments, we also thank Dave Garrity from g b A Research. We thank our Bloomberg television audience as well for joining us