John McAfee's Latest Project: Shielding Against Surveillance

Nerval's Lobster writes "Now that he's finished dodging law enforcement and experimenting with chemicals, software designer John McAfee (founder of his eponymous antivirus company) has been building something that, if it actually works, could appeal to the paranoid: a device that blocks the government's ability to spy on PCs and mobile devices. The device, known as 'Dcentral,' will reportedly cost around $100 and fit into a pants pocket. In a speech at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center over the weekend, McAfee suggested that the hardware would create private device networks impenetrable to outsiders, even those with the most sophisticated technology. The network's range would be roughly three blocks; McAfee believes that he can have a prototype up and running within six months. Whether or not McAfee manages to get that prototype working on schedule, he's already ramping up to the release of something, having set up a 'Future Tense Central' Website with a countdown clock, a sleek logo, and a set of social-media buttons. McAfee is such an outsized figure ('I've always wandered close to the edge,' he once confessed to an audience) that it's sometimes tempting to take his latest claims with a moon-sized grain of salt—this is the same man, after all, who says he avoided a police manhunt in Belize by dressing up as a drunk German tourist. (And he's unafraid to parody his own Wild Man reputation online.) That aside, he's also an executive with a record of starting a financially successful company, which means that—no matter what else he's done in the intervening years—it's likely that he'll attract a little bit of attention, if not some funding, with his latest endeavor."

Comments

Dcentral?

[neminem]

That is a really boring and unhelpful name for it.

I'll be really sad if the actual name of the device isn't "Fakeblock".

Is it this?

[stewsters]

Onion Pi

Re:Is it this?

[Anonymous Coward]

If so it is cute to think that this is enough to stop the NSA from spying on you. The exit nodes from TOR are well-known by design. And the traffic is not encrypted whenever it leaves an exit node. And the things they are most interested in, such as your g-mail and such they already have access to.

Since you're repeating what we all already know, I can tell you've missed the point. These devices aren't to stop the NSA from spying on just you, they're to stop the NSA from spying on everyone. As more people log on to the Tor network and more websites offer a hidden service, automated mass surveillance becomes much more difficult. An advanced persistent threat can break through pretty much any n00b's best efforts, but they can't focus that much time on all of us.

Moo

[Chacham]

Early testers have noted they "feel quite anonymous and undetectable" wearing the tinfoil hat, with no less than three extra layers of tinfoil to keep the NSA out.

For an extra $50, users can get a banner reading "Don't mind me, I'm anonymous." attached at no extra cost.

Re:Moo

[girlintraining]

Early testers have noted they "feel quite anonymous and undetectable" wearing the tinfoil hat, with no less than three extra layers of tinfoil to keep the NSA out.

Not nearly as amusing as the truth though; He became a successful CEO by starting a business whose product slogan is basically "Hey, that's a nice computer you got there; shame if something were to happen to it." After retiring, he was accused of murder, and then dressed up as a drunk tourist to elude and mock them, while insisting on his innocence. Recently, he has claimed that his brush with the keystone cops has granted him insight into the ubiquous surveillance present in our society, and for a small fee, can make you invisible to it.

There's very little left to this man except an ego, a thick wad of cash, and a seemingly limitless potential to exploit human stupidity as a fuel source for the aforementioned ego.

John McAfee Media Whoring again

[i_want_you_to_throw_]

This isn't news. You can already do this by buying the kit from adafruit.com or by buying one already built at PAPARouter.com(It's in the .sig). In short, Raspberry Pi + Debian + Tor. If you're browsing, make sure to use https everywhere.

He must be really tired from trying to stay relevant.

Re:John McAfee Media Whoring again

[LoRdTAW]

McAfee is talking about creating an encrypted, personal, portable mesh network device. The devices you linked are nothing more than TOR exit nodes which aren't as secure as most would like.

The idea behind a mesh network is there is no single point of control for the network, its literally a hodgepodge of nodes interacting with each other. So no ISP or internet connection needed, it is a separate network. If one node goes out the rest keep on talking to each other, you may lose contact with some clients though. Of course you won't be browsing the web with this device. Its main use would be for people in a meeting or conference who wish to share information without it going over any public networks. Sounds trivial but a plug and play solution isn't really available off the shelf unless you are talking about ad-hoc wifi which suffers from poor performance as the number of clients increases. I am sure it uses more modern wireless tech and has routing built in to balance the network traffic between nodes.

Re:John McAfee Media Whoring again

[nullchar]

If you also use Certificate Patrol, at least you'll know when you've been MITM'd.

Re:Fake block ?

[Qzukk]

I peeled back the label, it's clearly a rebadged tiger repeller.

What? McAfee is now selling snake oil?

[marcosdumay]

Well, going from anti-virus to full blown snake oil is not a complete change of direction.

Just in case you think of using Tor.

[i_want_you_to_throw_]

EFF.org has a great page about why https is so important to use with Tor. Also don't use Windows......ever

Re:Pervesion of truth

[sjames]

If I didn't know about his habit of shoving bath salts up his poop chute, I might ask what is he smoking.

John McAfee's REAL Latest Project:

[Scot Seese]

.. staying relevant, supporting his ex-stripper bride and not going totally broke.

Seriously though, I love this guy. Who needs "Bering Sea Gold Dredgers", "Duck Dynasty" or "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" when Johnny Mac is out there, popping up in my news feeds like the lovably insane, Hunter S. Thompson-ish "tech Uncle" for us to slowly laugh at before going back to work?

Re:Pervesion of truth

[lgw]

Private mesh networks are harder to surveil in their entirety than the current internet. Could the NSA put nodes across the country to get back to intercepting all traffic? Sure. But they'd have to do that - to be even more obvious about ubiquitous surveillance. If that sort of thing has become politically acceptable, then all hope is indeed lost. But there's at least a chance it would be a bridge too far.

OTOH, let's see him actually deliver. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you can stop those who are out to get you.

Re:Pervesion of truth

[sjames]

I fully agree, their work can be made a lot harder, and given their unwillingness to comply with the Constitution, the courts, and their own charter, it should be.

Tor over a mesh network does exactly that.

My objection is to calling any such solution impenetrable.