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John McAfee was a British-American computer programmer, businessman, and two-time presidential candidate who unsuccessfully sought the Libertarian Party nomination for president of the United States in 2016 and in 2020.
John David McAfee was a British-American computer programmer, businessman, and two-time presidential candidate who unsuccessfully sought the Libertarian Party nomination for president of the United States in 2016 and in 2020. In 1987, he wrote the first commercial anti-virus software, founding McAfee Associates to sell his creation. He resigned in 1994 and sold his remaining stake in the company.
John McAfee was the author of five books, covering topics ranging from computer security to spirituality.
McAfee was a libertarian, advocating the decriminalization of cannabis, an end to the war on drugs, non-interventionism in foreign policy, a free market economy which does not redistribute wealth, and upholding free trade. He supported abolishing the Transportation Security Administration.
On 8 September 2015, McAfee announced a bid for president of the United States in the 2016 presidential election, as the candidate of a newly formed political party called the Cyber Party. On 24 December 2015, he re-announced his candidacy bid saying that he would instead seek the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party.
John McAfee was born on an American airforce base in Gloucestershire in 1945. After graduating with a degree in mathematics in 1967, he worked for NASA on the Apollo program. He then transitioned into the tech industry and held positions at Univac, Xerox, and Computer Science Corporation. While working at Lockheed in the early 1980s, McAfee observed the rise of computer viruses and created antivirus software that could detect and remove viruses, which he named VirusScan. This software became the foundation for his company, McAfee Associates, which he founded in the late 1980s.
By the early 1990s, McAfee Associates was earning an estimated $5 million per year and had gone public after incorporating in Delaware. The company was eventually acquired by Intel in 2010, and its products were marketed as Intel Security. McAfee also founded other ventures, including Tribal Voice, which developed one of the first instant messaging programs, and PowWow. He invested in Zone Labs, a firewall software company, and later became the CEO of MGT Capital Investments, a technology holding company that mined Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
In addition to his work in the tech industry, McAfee was known for his eccentric personality and adventurous lifestyle. He advertised ultralight flights, which he called aerotrekking, and founded Future Tense Central, which aimed to produce a secure computer network device called the D-Central. He also developed an application for smartphones called Cognizant, which displayed information about the permissions of other installed applications.
McAfee's life was not without controversy. He was arrested multiple times and faced legal troubles related to his involvement with cryptocurrency. He was also a vocal critic of government surveillance and once claimed to have been a person of interest in a murder case in Belize.
On June 23, 2021, John McAfee was found dead in his jail cell in Spain, where he was awaiting extradition to the United States on charges of tax evasion. His death was ruled a suicide.
Published Work
John McAfee was the author of five books, covering topics ranging from computer security to spirituality. His first book, "Computer Viruses, Worms, Data Diddlers, Killer Programs, and Other Threats to Your System" (co-written with Colin Haynes), was published in 1989 and focused on the growing threat of computer viruses and how to defend against them.
In 2001, McAfee shifted his focus to spirituality with three books: "The Secret of the Yamas: Spiritual Guide to Yoga," "The Fabric of Self: Meditations on Vanity and Love," and "Into the Heart of Truth." These books explored themes such as self-discovery, meditation, and the pursuit of enlightenment.
His final book, "Beyond the Siddhis. Supernatural Powers and the Sutras of Patanjali," also published in 2001, delved into the topic of supernatural powers and their relation to the ancient Indian text, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
John was focused on promoting personal freedoms and libertarian ideals, including advocating for the decriminalization of cannabis and ending the war on drugs, supporting free trade, and opposing government surveillance and interventionism in foreign policy.
In his professional endeavours, McAfee was focused on advancing the field of computer security through the creation of his antivirus software and other security-related businesses. He was also interested in new technologies such as cryptocurrency and blockchain and sought to expand MGT Capital Investments into these areas.
