Skip to main content

McAfee has an interesting theory about the Ashley Madison hack

John McAfee may no longer be associated with the famous security company he founded, but he still writes about and consults on the topic, and he now claims to know the Ashley Madison “hack” was, in fact, data stolen by a “lone female who worked for Avid Life Media.”

His argument relies on two separate bits of evidence. First, McAfee says the files found in the leaked database contain some peculiarities that he wouldn’t expect a hacker to normally access. “The data contains actual MySQL database dumps,” he says, adding “this is not just someone copying a table and making [it] into a .csv file.”

Recommended Videos

In addition, the hack contains a lot of insider information. This includes employee stock options, the layout of the Ashley Madison offices, and the source code of every program ever written by the company’s employees. Further, McAfee says statements made by the alleged hackers seem to be hostile towards certain employees, like the company’s VP of Information Technology, and favorable towards others.

And how does McAfee knows the leaker is a woman? It’s all about the insults the hacker has levied. “The more telling was a statement calling men ‘scumbags’” says McAfee. “I think in any language this would suggest that a woman is speaking.” In addition to that, he notes the hacker’s first manifesto uses the term “spiteful” in reference to joining Ashley Madison after Valentine’s Day. According to McAfee, men have trouble even remembering Valentine’s Day exists, so the attacker must be a woman.

Serious legal issues continue to hound McAfee. Belize authorities sought him as a person of interest in a 2012 murder case, causing him to flee to Guatemala, where he was then deported to the United States. In early August, 2015, he was arrested in Tennessee on DUI charges and possession of a firearm while intoxicated.

McAfee has a great deal of experience in the security world, so his opinions cannot be easily dismissed. His theory about the type of files stolen, and the manner in which they were stolen, are likely worth closer examination. As such, it seems McAfee’s claims are best filed as plausible, but far from proven. All the evidence is circumstantial or grounded on broad generalizations. Personally, I’ll wait until more evidence makes these same connections before I entertain that they may be true.

Matthew S. Smith
Matthew S. Smith is the former Lead Editor, Reviews at Digital Trends. He previously guided the Products Team, which dives…
This Alienware x16 R2 gaming laptop with RTX 4080 is $700 off today
The Alienware x16 R2 gaming laptop with Evil Dead The Game on the screen.

You need to be ready to spend a lot of money if you want a powerful gaming laptop, but you should also be on the lookout for opportunities at huge savings from gaming laptop deals. Here's an offer that serious gamers should consider: the Alienware x16 R2 with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card at $700 off from Dell, bringing its price down from $3,200 to $2,500. It's still pretty expensive, but you can't ignore that massive discount. This is a clearance sale though, so you need to hurry with your purchase because stocks of the gaming laptop may already be running low.

Why you should buy the Alienware x16 R2 gaming laptop

Read more
This compact HP Omen gaming PC is on sale at 39% off today
The HP Omen 16L gaming desktop sitting on a desk.

For those who want a proper gaming desktop but don't have enough space for a big and bulky machine, the HP Omen 16L could be what you need. You're in luck because it's on sale from the gaming PC deals of HP right now, with this configuration featuring the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card available at 39% off. You'll only have to pay $800 instead of its original price of $1,330, but you need to push through with your purchase immediately if you want to make sure you pocket the savings of $530.

Why you should buy the HP Omen 16L gaming PC

Read more
SpaceX’s Starlink rival is about to launch more internet satellites — here’s how to watch
Amazon's KA-01 mission for Project Kuiper gets underway from the Space Coast.

[UPDATE: A technical issue with the rocket has caused the launch to be postponed. We'll update this article with the new launch schedule just as soon as it becomes available.]

Amazon is preparing to launch its second batch of Project Kuiper internet satellites to orbit as it seeks to build out a constellation to take on SpaceX’s Starlink service.

Read more