Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has announced that the McAfee brand name will be phased out in favor of a new name, Intel Security. John McAfee said of news: "My elation at Intel’s decision is beyond words."
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The name McAfee is synonymous with the ubiquitous anti-virus software, but in recent years, John McAfee has kept a relatively low profile in the tech industry, preferring instead to take up leisurely pursuits like yoga and evading Belizean police. Until now. Last Saturday, McAfee took the stage at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center to announce his intention to design and manufacture Decentral, a pocket-sized device priced at around $100 that would, in theory, make it difficult for governmental agencies to snoop on your online activities by creating so-called floating networks. According to the San Jose Mercury News, McAfee told an eclectic crowd of engineers and artists, “There will be no way [for the government] to tell who you are or where you are.” A gadget like Decentral does sound like a bit of a timely pipe dream, and McAfee admits that the prototype has yet to be produced. But, hey, if you can dream it, then maybe, just maybe, McAfee can do it.
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Antivirus creator and eccentric world-roaming rich guy John McAfee has a plan to get around the NSA’s snooping with a gadget called the “D-Central,” which is essentially a $100 router for building small, disconnected private networks that act as pockets of sharing access that’s not connected to the broader worldwide web.
It’s an admirable enough plan, and it may sound familiar, since that’s pretty much exactly the idea TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2012 Startup Alley participant Occupy.here was showing off this past spring. The Occupy.here project, created by founder Dan Phiffer, is intended to “create a distributed network of wifi locations,” each of which runs a version of its light forum software and serves people in the immediate network. Long-term, they’d like to deploy lots of router hardware running their software, which users can then jump between, creating a broad network that could cover an entire city, or even beyond.
Occupy.here is designed to work on router hardware that supports OpenWRT Linux and USB memory expansion for file sharing, and its founder explained to me in an interview back at Disrupt that they were looking around for a dedicated hardware provider. McAfee says his hardware design is in place, but requires an actual hardware manufacturing partner to come to fruition.
D-Central is still largely in the idea phase, but McAfee seems to believe that it will have encryption that can beat any attempts to hack in by the NSA, and we should learn more in a little under half a year according to a countdown clock on the D-Central official website. Meanwhile, Occupy.here’s Github repo just got an update this very morning, and it’s available to download and use on third-party hardware right now.
Both of these ideas are similar and will likely strike a chord with a group of users looking for privacy greater than that offered on the open web. One may be the fevered brain sneezes of a man well on his way to utter insanity, but the other is a viable project being actively worked on. Your choice which to support.
I don’t even know what this is. It’s not as batshit insane as McAfee’s guide to uninstalling McAfee Antivirus
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Welcome to the wild world of security and surveillance. From CCTV to massive government spying initiatives, there’s no escaping it. Recent high-profile leaks have served as a sobering reminder of just how present it is in all of our lives, so we figured what better time to take a deep dive? We kick things off with one of the strangest (and raciest) segments in Engadget Show history: a visit to the set of John McAfee’s latest web video. The one-time security software guru and fugitive discusses the state of antivirus, bath salts and offers some unsolicited advice to Edward Snowden, one exile to another. Trevor Timm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation sits down for an animated discussion of recent NSA surveillance revelations, including a breakdown of which major tech companies are doing right by their user base.
Boing Boing editor, sci-fi author and privacy activist Cory Doctorow climbs a tree in San Diego to discuss Wikileaks, the NSA, the “surveillance state” and more. “Edward Snowden is a hero,” he begins, not speaking on behalf of the EFF, mind you — and things get really good from there. Cryptographer and computer security specialist Bruce Schneier also chimes in on wiretapping, whistleblowing and “security theater.”
Next up, we pay a visit to The New Yorker‘s midtown office to talk Strong Box, the magazine’s secure deposit box for anonymous whistleblowers. The team behind Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs joins us to discuss partnering with computer security company Kaspersky to bring a realistic portrait of the world of hacking to its much anticipated title. And one-time hacker turned head of security community outreach at Microsoft, Katie Moussouris, discusses Redmond’s Bluehat bounty program and working with the hacking community to build safer software.
All that, plus the usual prognosticating from resident philosopher John Roderick in this month’s Engadget Show, just after the break.
Filed under: Cameras, Gaming, Wireless, Internet, Software, Microsoft
John McAfee is one weird guy, and this video only serves to bolster that reputation. Uploaded to YouTube last night, it’s a hilarious—and entirely NSFW—video which sees the man himself teach you how to uninstall McAfee Antivirus.
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John McAfee is one weird guy, and this video only serves to bolster that reputation. Uploaded to YouTube last night, it’s a hilarious—and entirely NSFW—video which sees the man himself teach you how to uninstall McAfee Antivirus.
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A new vulnerability has been discovered in Adobe Reader by security firm McAfee. The vulnerability makes it possible for people to see how a PDF file has been used. This un-patched security issue exists in every version of Adobe Reader, according to Haifei Li of McAfee. The latest sandboxed Adobe Reader XI, version 11.0.2, also has this vulnerability. It doesn’t allow code execution, meaning that this flaw isn’t a problem that should set off alarm bells, but it could pose a certain kind of threat.
The vulnerability only allows a sender to see where and when a PDF file has been opened. It is not entirely harmless though. This security flaw could be used by hackers to gain sensitive information such as ISP details and IP addresses McAfee hasn’t been able to pinpoint who is exploiting this Adobe Reader flaw as yet, but believes that an “email tracking service” provider is involved. Adobe hasn’t commented on this issue as yet, though McAfee says that they have reported this security flaw to Adobe, who haven’t confirmed to them whether they’ll be releasing a patch in the near future.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: New Wikimedia Commons App Makes Photo Donation To Wikipedia A Breeze, Evernote Food For Android Update Brings New User Interface, 
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McAfee’s newly patented technology can not only detect but also block all pirated content. This technology will expand McAfee’s SiteAdvisor tool through will it will detect pirated material available on any website. Such content will be blocked and users will be given legal alternatives. For example if someone’s trying to download a movie’s pirated copy, they’d be given the option to purchase it instead, and won’t be allowed to download it. The system is quite advanced, it can be configured to only warn those who are accessing pirated content and offer purchase options or it can be configured to totally block access to pirated materials.
McAfee says that this technology will curb possible violation of intellectual property rights and would also save costs associated with settling lawsuits stemming from these violations. Furthermore the company believes this will curb threats by unauthorized distributors, as it is no secret that pirated content can often contain malicious materials. It is not known as of now when McAfee plans on rolling out this system, it is expected that the system will be added to their existing security products.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Twitter Reportedly Testing Two Factor Authentication, Facebook Testing Chat Presence Dots In News Feeds, 
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Reports are coming in that John McAfee has been taken to the hospital after suffering what his lawyer called “convulsions.” There are conflicting reports about what the specific medical condition is, but we’ll keep you updated as it develops. More »
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