Episode description

Chris and Janet Morris (US military and government advisers on non-lethal weapons) are our featured guests.

Topic: Non-Lethal Weapons: How they change the future of military engagements (Part 3). Also Chris and Janet's fiction anthology series': Heroes in Hell and Lawyers in Hell.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the October 26, 2011 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 48 minutes]. This is the third and final portion of this interview which was recorded using Skype on October 1, 2011.

Janet Morris is President and CEO of M2 Technologies, Inc., a woman-owned corporation specializing in non-lethal weapons (NLW), novel technology applications, tactics and technology. Her seminal non-lethal concept and novel technology applications work has been used by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and was excerpted in the Army's Draft Operations Concept for Disabling Measures (920904). She has taught or provided course material to the U.S. Air Force's Air Command and Staff College, National Defense University's (IRMC) School of Information Warfare and Strategy, and Penn State University Applied Research Laboratory's Non-Lethal Institute. She has provided and presented seminars and briefings to the Defense Science Board, the Congressional Research Service, Senate Armed Services Committee Staff, and the Center for Naval Analysis.

Chris Morris is Vice-President and Board Chairman of M2 Technologies, Inc., specializing in strategic planning, tactical support, and technology exploitation. His work on non-lethal, developmental, and foreign technology policy and implementation issues has been used by the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps, OSD Office of Munitions, OSD Net Assessment, and excerpted in the U.S. Army's Draft Operations Concept for Disabling Measures (920904). He has taught course elements and contributed papers to the U.S. Air Force Air Command and Staff College and National Defense University's (IRMC) School of Information Warfare & Strategy. He has presented Strategic Planning papers and papers on technology exploitation to the Center for Naval Analysis, the Defense Science Board, Georgia Institute of Technology, Penn State University's Advanced Research Laboratory, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

News Item: A new cyber-threat warning issued by the United States National Cyber-Alert System in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security. Unspecified vulnerability in Medtronic Paradigm wireless insulin pump 512, 522, 712, and 722 allows remote attackers to modify the delivery of an insulin bolus dose and cause a denial of service (adverse human health effects) via unspecified vectors involving wireless communications and knowledge of the device's serial number, as demonstrated by Jerome Radcliffe at the Black Hat USA conference in August 2011. NOTE: the vendor has disputed the severity of this issue, saying "we believe the risk of deliberate, malicious, or unauthorized manipulation of medical devices is extremely low... we strongly believe it would be extremely difficult for a third-party to wirelessly tamper with your insulin pump... you would be able to detect tones on the insulin pump that weren't intentionally programmed and could intervene accordingly." 

Special thanks go to Randal L. Schwartz for emailing me this news item. (Randal is a widely known author of programming books and articles. He is co-host of FLOSS Weekly, and has been a guest on The Future And You six times in the last five years.)