Nathaniel Fick, State Department’s ambassador-at-large for cyberspace and digital policy, and Brad Medairy, executive vice president and cyber security leader at Booz Allen Hamilton, participated in a panel at the Sept. 3 Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington, D.C.
They discussed global cybersecurity trends and the evolving challenges in the field.
Fick outlined his reflections in two key areas: Internal and external progress. Internally, the focus is on training cyber and digital officers for every U.S. mission worldwide, with significant progress toward that goal. Externally, he credited bipartisan support in Congress for securing critical resources to enhance foreign cyber assistance. He also highlighted the role of U.S. leadership in global artificial intelligence governance, stressing the need for continued attention to emerging technologies.
Fick emphasized that cybersecurity is fundamentally about people, not machines, and expressed concern about the reluctance to discuss deterrence in cyber policy. He advocated for a measured approach that uses all available national resources to improve cyber deterrence.
“For reasons I don’t fully understand, deterrence seems to be a bad word in cyber discussions,” Fick 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 spoke of the private sector’s role in the Indo-Pacific region, emphasizing the importance of U.S. cyber readiness being aligned with that of its allies. Fick explained that the U.S. international cyber and digital strategy is built on “digital solidarity,” the idea that no country can face cyber challenges alone. He pointed to partnerships, such as the development of trusted undersea cable networks, which bolster both cybersecurity and geopolitical relationships.
Medairy also highlighted the U.S. industrial base’s investment in cybersecurity and asked how industry leaders could better engage with global partners. Fick, acknowledginf 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.