John McAfee Explains How He Milked Information From Belize's Elite

paysonwelch points out John McAfee's latest blog post, which "details the complex spy network that he used to tap information from the highest echelons of the Belizean government. He might consider a new career as a movie producer — this blog post is enthralling. Here is an excerpt: 'I purchased 75 cheap laptop computers and, with trusted help, intalled invisible keystroke logging software on all of them — the kind that calls home (to me) and disgorges the text files. I began giving these away as presents to select people — government employees, police officers, Cabinet Minister's assistants, girlfriends of powerful men, boyfriends of powerful women.'"

Comments

Two words:

[Anonymous Coward]

Nut Job

Re:Two words:

[Antique Geekmeister]

This is one of the places where the story rings false. Given any 30 people involved in full-time spying on dozens of other people, it is _inevitable_ that at least one of them would notify the police of this operation. Not only because the activity is illegal, but because very few people can keep quiet about what their wage paying job is for an extended period, and they would inevitably inform lovers, family, or friends. That then multiplies the number of people who might inform on the operation in a plea bargain.

For anyone who's been involved in handling security of any kind, such as a shared administrative password or simply keeping a corporate merger private before the public announcement, it's simply not feasible: it _will_ leak out with many participants.

If he wasn't in trouble before

[Anonymous Coward]

He certainly is now.

If I were in charge, I would send him to Belize as a show of good faith.

Slashbloat

[OffTheLip]

The amount of coverage McAfee has received on Slashdot and other "news" sources rivals the bloat his software adds to a system. Nothing to see here, move along.

Re:Slashbloat

[Anonymous Coward]

You just wish Peter Norton was this awesome. Fucking superspy.

Re:Slashbloat

[charlesbakerharris]

You mean the Peter Norton who hasn't been caught yet?

Hmm

[Gaygirlie]

So, let me get this straight: John McAfee is the founding-father of a large anti-virus company, he's worked with Zonelabs on their firewall software and so on, and then in the end he ends up doing exactly the same thing he's tried to protect people from -- namely, installing keyloggers and spying on everything they type on their computers?

Re:Hmm

[CdBee]

It was Ok though - he supplied McAfee AV on each of the laptops

Re:Hmm

[Gaygirlie]

>So, let me get this straight.
"Gaygirlie", you don't seem to have the best suited nick for the job.

Touché, my dear, touché.

Re:Not possible.

[Anonymous Coward]

I generally live in Belize 1/4 of the year now, and its certainly possible to get Chinese generic laptops very cheap here. Much cheaper than in America.

Re:Not possible.

[CdBee]

I'm inclined to agree, also because I suspect the kind of mindset who would actually DO this isn't the sort of person who would ever admit it - not least because he's forever besmirched his chance of ever doing it again. I suspect McAfee's suffering the after effects of various experimental chemicals, or delusions brought on by withdrawal symptoms

Re:Not possible.

[Anne_Nonymous]

>> Chinese generic laptops very cheap here

Plus they come preloaded with spyware.

Re:McAfee is not a drug addict

[Jaysyn]

I don't know, Philip K. Dick or Hunter S. Thompson could have wrote that in their sleep. :D

Hell, it reads almost like one of Dick's short stories.

Why is nobody stating the obvious?

[dills]

This is clearly bullshit.

At every turn, he attaches quantities to resources:

75 cheap laptops
23 women
6 men
8 of the women lived with him
2 people in the Nicaraguan Hezbollah camp
3 people in Mexico dealing with the Zetas

The only "evidence" supporting his story are his "so easy to fake my kids could it" screenshots and audio files.

I think the original assessment stands: This is a guy who has snorted waaaay too much MPDV, is seeing shadow men in bushes, and killed his neighbor in retaliation for his neighbor killing his dog.

He escaped the country via a combination of his charisma, money, and the ineptitude of the Belize law enforcement.

This is all just a retroactive attempt at explaining why the Belize government would want to frame him. Look, it's simple...why would Belize kill his neighbor to frame McAfee, when they could simply just kill McAfee instead?

Paranoid bullshit, and so obviously so.

There is no murder (or other) charge yet

[DragonWriter]

explain how he sidestepped a murder charge from a soverign nation

He didn't. He is a person of interested wanted for questioning, not a charged criminal. If he was a charged criminal, fleeing to the US wouldn't help, as the US has an extradition treaty with Belize that provides for the extradition of criminals charged with any of a wide array of crimes, including, naturally, as #1 on the list, murder.

There is nothing about this entire series of unfortunate events that shouldnt warrant immediate extradition to Belize

You mean, other than the fact that Belize hasn't criminally charged him with anything, much less anything subject to the extradition treaty with the US?

Unfortunately Mr McAfee wasnt found accused of these crimes in say, the Soviet Union or China

Or, for that matter, anywhere else. Because he hasn't actually been charged with any crimes, anywhere.

Re:Not possible.

[Anonymous Coward]

If only there were a way to detect such things -- you know, some sort of program that can locate and maybe even remove the offending code. Someone who could produce and sell such a thing would surely do well...

Can't wait for the movie...

[raftpeople]

starring Gary Buse as John McAfee