Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Antivirus pioneer spent later life on run
JOHN McAfee had a colourful and controversial life. He pioneered computer antivirus software and claimed to have fathered 47 children – before spending his final years on the run on a megayacht, write Talia Shadwell and Tomas Malloy.
McAfee, 75, reportedly took his own life in a prison cell in Barcelona on Wednesday after the Spanish high court authorised his extradition to the United States to face tax evasion charges.
The tech entrepreneur, known for his eccentric behaviour and trouble with the law, was born in Gloucestershire. He had a high profile and claimed he was being constantly targeted by hackers who saw outwitting him as “a badge of honour”, Mirror Online reports.
McAfee sold his stake in an antivirus firm to Intel for $7.6 billion (£4.7bn), before openly and repeatedly mocking the brand with wild stunts.
McAfee uploaded a parody video entitled How to Uninstall McAfee Antivirus onto YouTube in 2013. In the video, he slammed the software while snorting white powder surrounded by scantily clad women.
He spent the latter years of his life fleeing allegations of tax evasion, and was wanted for questioning over a murder and was accused of rape – all of which he denied.
He met his wife, 30 years his junior, Janice McAfee, when she solicited him as a sex worker while he was on the run, he said.
McAfee was born on a US military base in the Forest of Dean to an American father stationed there and a British mother, but was raised in the US state of Virginia.
When he was 15, his father, an abusive alcoholic, killed himself.
The BBC reported he said of his identity: “I feel as much British as I do American.
“There’s not much difference between our countries.”
After his father’s death, McAfee turned to drink and drugs but maintained an academic career in mathematics.
That career ended when his affair with a student was uncovered, according to the broadcaster.
They later married and he went on to work for a string of science and tech giants, including Nasa and Xerox, despite continuing to battle addictions.
McAfee said he ditched his drink and drug habit after his first wife left him.
He was working for defence contractor Lockheed Martin when he came across his first computer virus – a piece of code on a floppy disk – and recalled being instantly fascinated.
He discovered a talent for disinfecting computers and he set up McAfee Associates in 1983.
McAfee, who claimed in 2018 that he had fathered at least 47 children, lived in Belize for several years.
He fled after police sought him for questioning following the murder of a neighbour in 2012.
A 2016 Showtime documentary ‘Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee’ also aired allegations that McAfee had raped his former business partner and accusations he was involved in a second murder in Belize.
McAfee claimed that these incidents were fabricated, and alleged documentary makers had paid their interviewees to talk in “third-world banana republic” Belize, according to Bloomberg.
McAfee also claimed that he never used his own firm’s products and actually opted to use no software protection at all.
Alternatively, he said he constantly changed his IP address and never attached his name to any of his devices, which he would have other people buy for him. He also refused to use porn websites and never opened an email link until he had spoken to the sender on the phone.
McAfee continued to make headlines with his tech stunts – volunteering to decrypt a phone used by terrorists in a 2015 attack in San Bernadino, California, when Apple declined the FBI’s request.
He also once claimed he found a flaw in Androids allowing WhatsApp messages to be read, but courted controversy after it emerged he had sent reporters malware-infected phones so he could pull off the hack.
He also offered to help Cuba avoid a US trade embargo using cryptocurrency and said in 2019 that he had not paid US income taxes for eight years for ideological reasons.
He then left the US to avoid trial, largely living on a megayacht with his wife, four large dogs, two security guards and seven staff.
He was indicted in Tennessee on tax evasion charges and was also charged in a cryptocurrency fraud case in New York.
During an extradition hearing last month, McAfee claimed the accusations against him were politically motivated.