John McAfee, the antivirus
software pioneer and onetime international fugitive who is running for US
president, said Friday he was shifting his campaign to the Libertarian Party.
McAfee made the announcement as he unveiled a cybersecurity platform and told
reporters he was running for president to highlight the need for better cyber
protections.
"We need a dedicated
force of hackers focused on national security," McAfee said on the floor
of the Consumer Electronics Show, where he was promoting a new mobile security
product on which he is collaborating.
He said the United States is
in danger "because we are decades behind the Russians and Chinese in
weaponized software," while also highlighting the need to improve cyber
weapons to counter threats from those countries.
"You can't just have
defensive weapons in this world. You have to say, 'You push a button, we'll
push a button." The creator of the McAfee antivirus software in September
announced his presidential run as part of his own "Cyber Party."
He said Friday that shifting to
the Libertarian Party would make it easier to be on the ballot in all 50 states
and he believes he is philosophically aligned with the party.
"I was a Libertarian before
the word was coined," he said.
"I think the government is
too large. I think people should be free to live their own lifestyles without
interference from government." McAfee, who on his own Twitter page refers
to himself as an "eccentric millionaire," amassed an estimated $100
million fortune during the early days of the Internet in the 1990s, designing
the pioneering anti-virus software that bears his name and which is now owned
by Intel.
After cashing out, he became an
intrepid adventure-seeker, arriving in Belize in 2009 after losing most of his
fortune to bad investments and the financial crisis. McAfee was briefly incarcerated
in that country after police found him living with a 17-year-old girl and
discovered an arsenal of seven pump-action shotguns, one single-action shotgun,
and two 9-millimeter pistols.
He was living in Belize when
police came looking for him to discuss the murder of his neighbour -- a crime
for which he maintains his innocence.
No comments:
Post a Comment