The Threat Equation (HxMxC)ᶜ: Human, Machine, Climate
Sep 23, 2026 — 10:15 am - 10:30 AMBallroom ABC
Speakers:
The Threat Equation (HxMxC)ᶜ: Human, Machine, Climate
As Europe's digital backbone grows more critical, so does its exposure to disruption. This session explores how operators, regulators, and engineers are rethinking infrastructure design to withstand geopolitical, environmental, and technical shocks, without sacrificing the pace of innovation.
The Compounding Risk Organisations Aren't Structured For!
For years, organisations have treated human error, technology failure, and climate disruption as separate risks, each with its own owner. That separation is starting to look like a liability in itself. The framework behind this argument, (Human x Machine x Climate)C, argues these three vectors compound rather than stay contained. Human risk covers behaviors under pressure: error, social engineering, disinformation, fatigue driven judgment failure. Machine risk covers cyber physical attacks, AI and algorithmic failure, and cascading automation dependencies. Climate risk covers extreme weather, resource scarcity, and exposed supply chains. The three interact: a misjudgment can move through governance faster than leadership can respond, and the same infrastructure strained by weather is what human and machine systems already depend on. This structure is now shaping the 2026 RWN Summit programme, under tracks called Foresight, Community, and Regulation. Looking to 2028, the outlook groups near term threats into climate adaptation, geopolitical tension, and economic uncertainty, an environment described as more complex, volatile, and less stable. The open question for any organisation is whether three separate risk conversations still make sense, or whether they need to become one.