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There was a time this man's name was on just about everybody's computer. John

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McAfee. The tech pioneer helped create McAfee antivirus software that protects

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millions of computers. His colorful life has plenty of bizarre highs and lows. He

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left his namesake company behind decades ago and he wound up on the run in

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Central America. Authorities in Belize wanted to question him about the death of

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a neighbor. Cops raided his jungle compound and they seized his belongings

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and he went into hiding and got deported from Guatemala. Well today at age 68

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McAfee is putting all of that behind him. I want to bring in now John McAfee. He's

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joining us from Colorado Springs Colorado. It is nice to see you again sir after

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running across you down in Belize and following your exploits elsewhere. Thank

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you for coming on the show tonight. It's been 14 months and nice to see you again

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and thank you for reminding me about my past. All right well let's talk a bit

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about someone else's past and specifically target the hacking scandal

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that they've gone through. This is of course a big security concern for many

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people losing their personal information. What was your reaction when you heard

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about this big hacking? Well it was no surprise. You know we all know that the

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NSA has been spying on Americans but that's the least of our problems and by the

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way I would not like to be the president today the other than his party the he's

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between a rock and a hard place on the NSA issue. We have the NSA saying if you back

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off from this we are disarming at a time of heightened cyber warfare and then we

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have the American public saying you know enough is enough you know give us some

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privacy but this all folds into the target problem. I think I think America has

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lost its way. We are in the first cyber war and we are hopelessly ill-prepared. We

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have lost a hundred and ten million credit cards in one hack alone. That's the

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target 40 million to begin with then the additional 70. Three other major department

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stores have been hacked. Last week refrigerators and microwave ovens and

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televisions were hacked here in America and we're sending out bogus emails. This we

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know is merely the beginning of a much larger attack. The next war is not going

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to be bombs and and guns and and missiles it's going to be destabilizing the

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American economy both socially and economically to the point that it

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collapses. Well let me ask you this John because you are an expert and I know

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you're brilliant when it comes to matters of security. When it comes to

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trying to protect ourselves is there a way we can or must we get used to a future

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where everything is open and out on the internet? Well if everything is open and

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out on the internet we we are lost. We have to have privacy Martin it's it's it's a

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fundamental necessity of culture. Privacy is a choice if you if you have a

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dinner party with a a new neighbor you will choose to divulge certain things

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about yourself and and restrict other things. When you get to know someone then

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you divulge more and more. This is the nature of privacy. We choose to divulge

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what we want. We cannot suddenly have everyone knowing everything there would

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be chaos. Do you think that there is a security software that could be developed

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to protect us both when we shop and our privacy online? It's not just the

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software Martin it's it's how do we protect ourselves from ourselves. All of

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these hacks were not done by by high-tech people using just software and and

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hardware. These attacks were done using the frailties of human beings. Curiosity

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for example. We break and people break into corporations not by breaking their

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encryption all the time but by dropping a thumb drive in front of a car that

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that's that's that's owned by an overweight secretary within the corporation. On

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the back it says weight loss tips. She takes it in plugs it into her computer and

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suddenly the hackers owned the corporation. It's the human frailties that we have to

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worry about now. We have more technology than we know what to do with. I want to

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before our time runs out sort of get an update on where things are. I know the

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last time I saw you you were fleeing officials in Belize you were then

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deported out of Guatemala. What is going on with your life now? Well you know I have

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no legal problems whatsoever. The Belizean government never charged me with

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anything. They really wanted to question me like they questioned all of my

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neighbors. I just chose not to be questioned. So I have no legal issues. I'm

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working on a security project called Decentral which is an alternate to the

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internet an alternative to the internet that's completely secure. I'm consulting

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with organizations and spending a lot of my time talking to the press. This is I

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think my 17th time in this studio here in the past four months trying to alert

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the the American public to the realities. We are we are in a new world. Warfare has

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changed. John I've got to end it there but it is a pleasure at least to catch up see

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how you are and talk to you about all things technical. Good luck in the future.

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Thank you. Thank you Martin.