Lyceum's Cybersecurity Series Part 1: "What You Don't Know CAN Hurt YOU"

Lyceum’s Cybersecurity Series Part 1:

“What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You”

 

Welcome to Episode 30, Season 9 of A CEO’s Virtual Mentor^®

In this opening installment of Lyceum’s new Cybersecurity Series, A CEO’s Virtual Mentor^® convenes five board members and cybersecurity experts from the Lyceum Circle of Leaders^® to confront one of the most elusive challenges in modern governance – understanding what you cannot see.

As Stephen Hawking warned, “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance — it is the illusion of knowledge.” That illusion, we learn, is the hidden trap of board cybersecurity oversight.

Across four parts, our guests – Jorge Benitez, Brook Colangelo, Michael Crowe, Michael Kehs, and Wendy Thomas – illuminate how directors can move from passive awareness to active preparedness, transforming cybersecurity from a technical checklist into an enterprise discipline rooted in governance, visibility, and human judgment.

The program examines why boards miss what matters most, how to see beneath the “hidden surface” of cyber risk, and how disciplined frameworks turn uncertainty into resilience. Through their collective insight, a new picture emerges: cybersecurity not as compliance, but as the continuous practice of foresight.

Program Guide

A CEO’s Virtual Mentor^® Episode 30

Lyceum’s Cybersecurity Series Part 1:

“What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You”

 

0:00 | Introduction

Host Tom Linquist introduces Season 9 and Lyceum’s special Cybersecurity Series — the first podcast project to draw on multiple members of the Lyceum Circle of Leaders^®.

He frames the series’ purpose: to help boards confront cybersecurity not as a technical topic, but as a behavioral and governance issue — an invisible domain where the illusion of knowledge endangers oversight itself.

 

Part 1 — Why the Subject Is Important (4:00 – 16:30)

Cybersecurity has evolved from a back-office function to a boardroom imperative.

• Jorge Benitez recalls establishing Accenture’s early information-security practice and how cyber risk became a universal business concern.
• Mike Crowe contrasts threat motives across industries and stresses that “cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility.”
• Brook Colangelo links cyber vigilance to corporate sustainability and shareholder trust.
• Michael Kehs reminds boards to get started early; that “by the time you hear the thunder, it’s too late to build the ark.”
• Wendy Thomas draws the parallel between today’s need for cyber fluency and boards’ earlier journey toward financial literacy.

 Together, they establish the stakes: what boards don’t know can — and will — hurt them.

 

Part 2 — Visibility (16:50 – 31:20)

True oversight requires seeing what lies beneath the surface.

• Brook Colangelo describes forming a Technology and Cyber Committee and applying the NIST framework to benchmark maturity.
• Mike Crowe explains hiring “offensive” experts to test defenses before attackers do.
• Wendy Thomas introduces the streamlined Prevent–Detect–Respond (PDR) model, connecting it to board metrics such as mean time to detect and mean time to respond.
  She also warns that during crises, boards must remember: “There’s no watching the game tape during the game.”

This segment translates technical language into governance visibility — turning blindness into inquiry.

 

Part 3 — Risk Management (31:36 – 39:50)

Cybersecurity joins the top tier of every board’s risk matrix.

• Mike Crowe situates cyber alongside geopolitical and climate risks.
• Tom Linquist introduces the “hidden surface problem” — the behavioral bias that limits directors to what is easily seen.
• Brook Colangelo reframes preparedness as competitive advantage: companies that prove digital trust win customers and revenue.
• Jorge Benitez observes that the most progressive boards now embed cyber within comprehensive risk frameworks, enabling all directors to engage.

 This section bridges oversight and enterprise resilience, urging boards to govern the unseen.

 

Part 4 — Objectives of the Cybersecurity Series (40:18 – 44:58)

The series concludes its first installment by looking ahead.

• Brook Colangelo highlights how global conflict and artificial intelligence have accelerated the pace and complexity of cyber risk.
• Wendy Thomas calls for a stronger community of boards that collectively raise the cost of attack.
• Jorge Benitez encourages continuous learning through peer forums such as the Lyceum Circle of Leaders^®.

Tom Linquist closes with an invitation to continue the series — a journey from illusion to insight, from defense to resilience.

 

Total Runtime: ≈ 45 minutes

 

 

We would like to express our special thanks to the clients of Lyceum Leadership Consulting that enable us to bring you this podcast.

 

 

Informative and Helpful Links

 

NIST’s Cybersecurity Framework: https://www.nist.gov/cyberframework

 

CISA’s Cybersecurity Incident & Vulnerability Response Playbooks: https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-08/Federal_Government_Cybersecurity_Incident_and_Vulnerability_Response_Playbooks_508C.pdf

 

Your host Thomas B. Linquist is the Founder and Managing Director of Lyceum Leadership Consulting and Lyceum Leadership Productions. Over his 25 years in management and leadership consulting he has served a wide array of corporate clients.  This includes leadership assessment and search for chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief operating officers and directors of boards.  He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and over his 35-year career has served in a variety of roles: as an engineer with Shell Oil Company, a banker with ABN AMRO Bank, and as treasurer was the youngest corporate officer in the 150+ year history at Peoples Energy Company in Chicago. 

He is an expert on hiring and promotion decisions and leadership development.  Over the course of his search and advisory career, Tom has interviewed thousands of leaders and authored numerous articles exploring group decision-making under uncertainty, board effectiveness, and leadership development.

 

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Program Disclaimer

The only purpose of the podcast is to educate, inform and entertain. The information shared is based on the collection of experiences of each of the guests interviewed and should not be considered or substituted for professional advice. Guests who speak in this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions, and neither The Leadership Lyceum LLC nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular content, recommendation or methodology discussed in this podcast.

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This podcast Leadership Lyceum: A CEO’s Virtual Mentor^® has been a production of The Leadership Lyceum LLC. Copyright 2025. All rights reserved.