The software pioneer, who started anti-virus company McAfee (now part of Intel) but gained notoriety as a "person of interest" in a bizarre murder case in Belize, says government officials scoffed at his suggestion that the beleaguered web site be rebuilt from scratch.
"They considered my solution political suicide," McAfee told USA TODAY in a phone interview today.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce reached out to McAfee in an email Oct. 14 from staff counsel Sean Hayes, hoping to arrange a meeting today in Washington, D.C.
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But the talks sputtered between the committee and Francois Garcia, a Canada-based associate of McAfee who acted as a conduit. "If the government intended this as a PR stunt, I would certainly not have chosen me for advice," said McAfee, who is in Colorado, recruiting staff for his next start-up. The company, called Future Tense, is developing products to prevent eavesdropping of electronic communications.
In the Oct. 14 email, obtained by USA TODAY, Hayes said:
"Given the failures of healthcare.gov, and Mr. McAfee's expertise, I was hoping he might be able to discuss his views with staff on the hill. It would be an informal discussion: we would take notes but
these would not be for attribution, it would mainly guide our oversight and review of the program. This would hopefully not be a heavy lift for him: what problems could lead to the compromise of personal identifying information? What could we be doing to prevent data or identify theft? What advice generally does he have?"
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