Nathaniel Fick, the State Department’s ambassador-at-large for cyberspace and digital policy, and Brad Medairy, executive vice president and cybersecurity leader at Booz Allen Hamilton, discussed global cybersecurity trends and evolving challenges during a panel at the Sept. 3 Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington, D.C.
Fick focused on two main areas: internal progress and external efforts. Internally, he highlighted the training of cyber and digital officers for every U.S. mission worldwide, noting strong advancements in this initiative. Externally, he credited bipartisan congressional support for securing crucial resources to improve foreign cyber assistance. He also stressed the need for U.S. leadership in global AI governance and the importance of monitoring emerging technologies.
Fick underscored that cybersecurity is fundamentally about people, not machines, and expressed concern over the lack of discussion on deterrence in cyber policy. He called for a strategic use of all national resources to strengthen cyber deterrence.
“For reasons I don’t fully understand, deterrence seems to be a bad word in cyber discussions,” he said. “But I believe cybersecurity is not fundamentally about machines — it’s about human beings, and I think humans are deterrable in almost every case.”
Medairy emphasized the private sector’s critical role in the Indo-Pacific region, stressing that U.S. cyber readiness must be in sync with its allies. The U.S. international cyber and digital strategy is based on “digital solidarity,” underscoring that no nation can tackle cyber challenges alone, he said. He cited partnerships like developing trusted undersea cable networks as key to strengthening both cybersecurity and geopolitical ties.
Medairy also highlighted the U.S. industrial base’s investment in cybersecurity and asked how industry leaders could better engage with global partners. Fick, acknowledging the challenges, stressed the importance of innovation, urging allies to adopt U.S. technologies while also building their own innovation economies to counter brain drain.
Looking ahead, Fick highlighted opportunities in AI safety, security and deepfake detection, identifying intellectual property theft as a top concern for AI companies. He concluded by emphasizing the need for international guardrails in AI development to ensure that AI’s benefits are accessible to all, particularly in developing economies.
“One of the top concerns for AI companies is the theft of intellectual property by nation-state competitors,” Fick noted. “There will be interesting business opportunities in securing frontier AI models and distinguishing between AI-generated and human-generated content.”
Panelists agreed that effective cybersecurity relies on a combination of international partnerships, innovation in AI governance, and a focus on human deterrence to counter growing cyber threats. They also discussed the need for strong leadership in AI safety and security.