John McAfee: Wake the F*** up to Consumer Security Threat

Security mogul John McAfee said consumers must “wake the fuck up” to their devices’ basic security threats – while describing Blockchain technology as “the beauty of mathematics.”

Also read: MGT Capital & Bitmain Focus On U.S.-Based Bitcoin Mining

Hackers ‘Will Figure It Out’…

In an interview with IB Times at the Blockchain:Money event in London, the renowned security product developer said security must be a top priority. Even his bitcoin mining operation employs a one-of-a-kind solution.

“Security is the biggest problem,” he said. “The hacking world hasn’t quite figured it out, but they will.”

Bitcoin mining has become the preserve of the few with the investment power to put behind it, and McAfee described his US-based project as “a bit of a study in transaction processing.”

“We have security facilities on our network that no other miner has,” he explained. “We have our own proprietary box called Sentinel which sits on the network and monitors all network traffic – it’s looking for anomalies.”

The 400-strong operation in Washington State is set to expand to 2000 machines by the start of 2017. The location is deliberate – the currently 5 petahash facility is “right next door to a hydroelectric power plant” and the climate optimized to require minimum artificial cooling.

…While Blockchain Tech ‘Here to Stay’

Beyond the Bitcoin foray, however, McAfee took aim at the lax security surrounding use of consumer devices such as smartphones, and championed blockchain technology as something which is “here to stay.”

“We are all missing the trivial,” he said talking about the ease with which hackers can unlock personal data such as credit card information on an iPhone. “The answer is, number one, to wake the fuck up and, number two, if you want security you are never going to get it on this.”

In his eyes, blockchain’s flexibility is plain to see.

“The blockchain itself is being applied to everything from voting systems to authenticating the identity of an individual,” he continued. “Here’s the irony of this – a system that is built to give pure anonymity also being used to absolutely identify… That’s the beauty of mathematics, it can be applied to almost anything.”

McAfee’s newly-acquired MGT Technologies previously appointed leading Bitcoin figures to its Cryptocurrency Advisory Board. Bitcoin.com CEO Roger Ver became the board’s chairman, while Shapeshift’s Erik Voorhees and former Bitcoin Foundation executive director Bruce Fenton also joined.

A Hacker Advisory Board was also created, with Bryan Seely as its first member.

“Alexandre Fichet, designer of the first bank vault safe famously stated, ‘No one unschooled in the art of picking locks can design and build a decent safe,’” McAfee commented at the time.  

What do you think about McAfee’s angle on security? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images via: MGT Capital Investments

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