Your only interaction with the name McAfee might be the occasional, annoying pop-up message letting you know your free antivirus software has expired, but the story of the man who founded that company goes way beyond cybersecurity.
John McAfee is a legend, not just in the tech industry, but for living an eccentric life that holds stories of drugs, vast fortunes made and lost, aspirations for creating new medicines and a brief stint as an international fugitive on the run in Central America.
Business Insider combed through stories written about McAfee over the years and put together a sort of primer on the man. Here are some key passages to give you a taste:
In the '60s, while working on punch card systems to digitize railroad schedules:
In the '80s, after working for NASA and several Silicon Valley tech companies:
In the '90s, after turning McAfee Antivirus into a huge company and going public through consumers' fear of the Michelangelo computer virus.
In the 2000s, after moving to Belize to reportedly go into the biomedical field, and shortly before he fled after his neighbor was shot to death.
There's a lot more to the story, and the whole thing is worth a look over at Business Insider.
Of course, you could always get the (bizarre/maybe parody) version of the Belize story from the real John McAfee himself in this YouTube video he posted a couple years ago.
Related Stories
Worst Video on the Internet Today: McAfee Founder John McAfee Tells All in New Bizarre Video
The definition of "dark humor."
