Cyber Scenario Planning with Alan Iny, Sanjay Khanna, and Michael Coden

The Decision Corner

In this episode of the podcast, Brooke chairs a roundtable discussion at the intersection of risk, scenario planning and cybersecurity. His guests are Sanjay Khanna, Strategic Advisor and Foresight Expert, and Advisor to The Decision Lab; Alan Iny, Global Lead for Creativity and Scenarios at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Michael Coden, Global Lead for BCG Platinion’s Cybersecurity Practice. Together they discuss the human and systemic vulnerabilities that expose us to cybersecurity risks, and how scenario planning and creative problem solving can help mitigate such threats. Drawing from countless real-world examples of major global crises, they argue that although our best thought-out plans may never materialize, the process of planning itself is invaluable.

Some topics discussed include:

The guests’ recent thought leadership on cybersecurity, including two potential future cybersecurity scenarios - one reflecting greater multi-stakeholder cooperation, the other reflecting a more fragmented, individualistic response.

Balancing a need for individual awareness and responsibility around cybersecurity with a wider systematic approach to the challenge.

If human error is the root cause of cybersecurity breaches, how can we help people avoid such errors?

The case for scenario planning, not as a prediction tool, but as a mechanism to prepare for a range of plausible scenarios.

Real-world examples of how scenario planning has enabled international organisations to prepare for risks that bear similarities to events such as Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.