Gawker: valleywag, mcafee

Can YouTube vindicate a rape survivor?

Melissa Gira Grant — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Crystal says that a 23-year-old man raped her, and she's saying it on YouTube. Why not go to a shelter or a counseling center like girls are supposed to? Crystal isn't just doing teen-bedroom confessional; she's asking YouTube viewers to call the Florida state attorney's office to request that her case be prosecuted. But does talking about rape on YouTube do anything that the courts can't? The full video, after the jump:

YouTube wasn't Crystal's only online option. She could have gone to an anonymous chatroom for survivors created by McAfee Security and RAINN, a sexual-assault education organization. But when less than 5 percent of rape cases ever make it to prosecution in Crystal's home state, including her own, a girl might want a broader audience for her outrage. Revealing her face, her location, her IP address as a rape survivor may seem scary. But in this case, it made more sense than trusting offline law.

Can't get help from McAfee? Try Valleywag

Jackson West — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:00:00 EDT

A reader writes in to let us know that while using McAfee's online chat system for customer support, the company representative not only didn't help, but cut off the chat rather than admit they had no idea what they were talking about. I turned up links to just what the customer was looking for — information about a piece of McAfee hardware — with a quick search of Google. Here at Valleywag, we aim to please.

McAfee: Merry Christmas, here's the new nightmare

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:32:17 EST

Christmas is slow for journalists. There are a few more end-of-year lists to run, most of which were written weeks ago, and some holiday shopping numbers to report. Which is why the Sydney Morning Herald's Conrad Walters must have been thrilled to see security software firm McAfee's latest study on the growing threat of cyberwar between nations. It's not every day a hack gets to paint a picture of gloom and doom this lurid.

First the mobile fails. Intermittent black spots are nothing new but you haven't had so much as an SMS from motormouth Michael in hours or anything from Jen who always calls with arrangements for Tuesday's movie by now. You resign yourself to catching up on email and the frustrations mount with each minute on an unresponsive computer. Has the whole world stopped?

The thrills don't stop there. Walters goes on to detail cyberattacks against Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Germany, India and Estonia in the last 12 months. None of them seem to have done much harm.

But they totally could have, Walters tells us. Potential targets include air traffic control systems, financial markets, government computer networks, telecommunications, electricity services "and beyond." So what's a newspaper-reading citizen to do about this imminent threat? Walters asks an expert. "As an absolute minimum," McAfee exec Michael Sentonas tells Walters, "home PCs should be protected by antivirus software, antispyware and a firewall." Take that, nation-states!

(Photo by Pitel)

Out of options: Three CEOs resign today

Nick Douglas — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 12:43:37 EDT

McAfee's president and chairman-CEO resign after the company finds a $100 to $150 million discrepancy in the accounting of its stock options grants. McAfee notes that CEO George Samenuk is retiring, while the board fired president Kevin Weiss. [NY Times]
CNET's CEO (co-founder Shelby Bonnie) quit over an options probe as well, after a report partially blamed him for improperly accounted backdated stock options. [Washington Post]
Microsoft Germany's chief quit Friday, leaving a note to employees complaining that Microsoft restricted his operations and ignored him. [Techworld]
Sprint Nextel chief Timothy Donahue (shown here presenting An Inconvenient Truth) announced he'll retire early, at the year's end, to "spend more time with his family and friends." As always, that phrase means he was pushed out the door but allowed the dignity of a resignation. [NY Times]

Bad ads: A bad case of robot face

Nick Douglas — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:22:24 EDT

We guess McAfee is trying to show the horror of exposed identity. Still — is this, or is this not, the most grotesque ad for a virus scanner you've ever seen? It's practically a Dadaist artwork.

Spotted at Technorati [Front page]

Under the table: McAfee's SiteAdvisor deal

ndouglas — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 16:19:41 EDT

Grr, another article ending in "Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed." Information wants to be free! (Or at least available on an ad-supported blog!) So from now on, when you know the numbers behind a deal, send 'em to tips@valleywag.com or send an AIM to "HeyValleywag". We'll reveal the price here in a new feature, "Under the Table."

The first McAfee bought SiteAdvisor, and that's all they're telling. But a little bird says McAfee paid about $75 million.

Overpriced? A steal? Looks like comments are still broken (or everyone's switched to Flock), so copy-paste that response before you post it.

McAfee buys search-warning company [ZDNet]