Tech pioneer John McAfee uses low-tech social engineering to spy on Belize heavyweights

By his own account his approach was technically unsophisticated

Antivirus pioneer John McAfee spins tales of a Hezbollah plot to smuggle toxic powder into the U.S. that he uncovered when he spied on Belize officials in hopes of getting dirt on them in retaliation for their raiding his island home there, shooting his dog and stealing his stuff.

He rolls out his complex, disjointed narrative via his blog (he says he wrote partially while on the run from Belize police and military) and also through interviews he grants to sometimes gullible journalists -- and it's questionable how much of it is true and how much he just makes up.

BACKGROUND: Murder suspect/fugitive John McAfee defends himself via blog

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The lesson? "Social engineering is still the most effective attack we have in the world. Without it, this would have been unsuccessful," Pironti says.

Still McAfee did a good job setting up his network. "He was a software, computer, security guy -- the right factors to help a social engineering team work better," he says. "He was organizing this in a fairly sophisticated way where he had the funds to do this."

Tim Greene covers Microsoft for Network World and writes the Mostly Microsoft blog. Reach him at tgreene@nww.com and follow him on Twitter @Tim_Greene.

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