John McAfee offers to help FBI, Apple in privacy battle

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Cyber security expert John McAfee said it’s plain and simple — the government should allow him and his team to lend them a hand in cracking into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone.

“I’ve offered the FBI that my team and myself will decrypt that one phone,” McAfee said Friday during an interview in Memphis with WBBJ. “Give us the phone. We’ll decrypt it for you and tell you what’s in it.”

McAfee, who said he’s one of the world’s most well-known hackers, believes his team is the best on the planet and have skills the FBI isn’t willing to bring in.

He said his team would only need three weeks to get the information the FBI is looking for.

“Most of the hackers are born,” McAfee said. “There is some unique talent which is inherent to the person, and the government won’t hire those people.”

The antivirus software founder warns any forced action on Apple’s part can be a problem for years to come.

“Once you put a back door in software, that back door eventually gets out into the public and hackers get it. Our enemies, like China and Russia, get it and then suddenly we are defenseless,” McAfee said.

Whatever happens, McAfee said he’s concerned about the government having this game-changing power.

“The FBI said, ‘Well, we will only use it once.’ Get real. It is the government. If you give them a tool that is that powerful, you know that it’s going to be used,” McAfee said. “If in fact the FBI goes ahead, we are all lost, because next Google will fall, and then suddenly there is no privacy for anyone.”

McAfee said he reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook and is still awaiting a response from the FBI.