President Obama’s $19 billion cybersecurity program, in which the president will appoint a ‘Cyber Czar,’ will end in failure if implemented, according to cybersecurity expert John McAfee.
After years of ignoring the cybersecurity issue, the president announced his billion-dollar ‘Cybersecurity National Action Plan’ on Tuesday to “to enhance cybersecurity awareness and protections” and “maintain public safety as well as economic and national security,” but McAfee pointed out a major hole in the president’s proposal.
“Basically the government as it exists is too incompetent to implement such as thing,” McAfee said in a phone interview. “They don’t have the people.”
Obama unveiled his $19 billion cybersecurity proposal, including $3.1 billion to replace older computers, as part of his 2017 budget request.McAfee, who’s perhaps best known for developing the first commercial anti-virus program, is running for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination to highlight the public’s need for cybersecurity amid government surveillance, especially after U.S. intelligence director James Clapper said the NSA and other agencies will use Internet-connected, “smart” household appliances to spy on Americans.“What I bring to the Libertarian Party is cybersecurity, which in their platform is not even mentioned although it’s probably the number one thing right now,” McAfee said. “I think cybersecurity is the greatest issue that we have today because the next war is not going to be fought primarily with bombs, battleships and airplanes but with someone in China pushing a button and our infrastrure instantly disappears.”“We won’t have any power, emergency services… food production will end and with it food distribution.”“It’s a monumental problem and it’s right on the horizon,” he added. “So that’s why the Libertarian Party: they bring me ballot access and I bring them into the modern age of technology.”