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John McAfee

John McAfee68 posts

John McAfee is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur born in 1945. He was one of the first people to design anti-virus software and to develop a virus scanner, creating McAfee Associates. He now has no relationship with the company, which was sold to Intel Corp. In 2010 he moved to Belize to start a biotech company, but left the country when accused of murdering his neighbor. He currently resides in the U.S.

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6 Mar, 1992

Michaelangelo Virus

Makes Statement0 Comments

McAfee tells journalists that a virus dubbed “Michelangelo,” which completely wipes the hard drive of infected computers, will be activated on as many as five million PCs. His declaration causes a near-panic in the computer-using world. But by March 7, nothing has happened. He is blamed for creating a false threat to sell more of his anti-virus software. Sales reportedly “skyrocket”  with more than half of the companies in the Fortune 100 having purchased McAfee software.

1987

Launches McAfee Associates

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Launches McAfee Associates

I stumbled onto McAfee when my brother-in-law showed me a newspaper article about a computer virus, one of the first computer viruses actually, I just was rocked by the whole thing, I remember reading the story and being fascinated by the technology and at the same time, my mind was already working on how to solve it. So I sat down and wrote a program and put what I had made on my bulletin board.