Is it worth 'Running with the Devil'?

To those in CyberSecurity, there is one very, very important thing you do this bank-holiday weekend.

No, it's not updating your iPhone to cope with that massive security flaw they just announced (but do that too).

No, it's not to have a BBQ with family and friends, weather permitting (but why not?)

Your task this weekend is sitting down and watching the new Netflix show called Running With The Devil. Although it sounds like a horror/fantasy movie, it's actually an astonishing documentary about one of the most exceptional characters in Cyber Security History.

John McAfee.

A man who for many of us needs no introduction at all. For some, he may only be remembered as the successful founder of the world's first AntiVirus company brought to market. But to the rest Mr McAfee is likely to be remembered more for his extravagant and sometimes bizarre behaviour in the media's eye. Ranging from murder charges to political plots from corrupt governments, the story of McAfee is as deeply involved as any fiction you could hope to find.

Made with footage recorded from various sources taken during John's life and edited together in a very effective and almost seamless way, one immediately feels sucked into the carnival lead by John as the dancing Joker. We the audience rush along with John, caught up under the spell of his mania, witnesses to scenes of perplexing curiosity including, murder allegations, arrests, heart-attacks, political campaigns and conspiracy theory and conspiracy fact, all combine into a thrilling spectacle worth watching. This is easily one you can convince your other-half to watch too, even if they aren't the least bit interested in your Cyber Security Homework.

We get a picture of a powerfully astute yet wild man, certainly with the capacity to have discovered some of the nastiest deeds of powerful people. Using skills acquired during an impressive career across such companies as NASA, Xerox and Lockheed Martin he is said to have become a man who knew too much. What that 'too much' actually boils down to is obviously never quite available as one might expect. However it raises the interesting question; was there ever a genuine conspiracy against him or had paranoia taken a grip of him?

Running With the Devil is well worth watching. Even if only for the pieces of the Big Bad Jigsaw that we are all obliged to piece together on own. John himself points out early on that editing can alter impressions of truth, so the trick is to watch the show (and all shows) in light of editing choices, both inclusions and omissions.

Questions surround us after watching. What exactly could John have known to made him so important? Was it a cult of personality? Could he have really gone so far as to commit suicide when he'd gone on record 2 years earlier saying that it would never happen?

"If I suicide myself, I didn't. I was whackd." - John McAfee

Now that you all have your Homework assignments, please post your own theories, suspicions and opinions as soon as possible.