Nathaniel Fick

Last updated
Nate Fick
Nathaniel C. Fick, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large.jpg
Ambassador-at-Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy
Assumed office
September 21, 2022

Nathaniel C. Fick (born June 23, 1977) is an American diplomat, technology executive, author, and former United States Marine Corps officer. He was the CEO of cybersecurity software company Endgame, Inc., then worked for Elastic NV after it acquired Endgame. He was an Operating Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. In 2022, he was selected to lead the U.S. State Department's Bureau for Cyberspace and Digital Policy.

Contents

Fick is the author of One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer , a memoir of his military experience published in 2005 that was a New York Times bestseller, one of the Washington Post's "Best Books of the Year," and one of the Military Times ' "Best Military Books of the Decade."

Early life and education

Fick was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1977, and attended Loyola Blakefield high school in Towson, Maryland. Fick went on to attend Dartmouth College. [1] He later graduated with degrees in classics and government in 1999. While at Dartmouth, Fick captained the cycling team to a U.S. National Championship and wrote a senior thesis on Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War and its implications for American foreign policy. [2] After leaving the Marine Corps, Fick earned both an MPA and MBA from Harvard University.

Career

In 1998, after his junior year at Dartmouth, Fick attended the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School and was commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduating college on June 12, 1999. [3]

Fick was trained as an infantry officer and was eventually assigned as a platoon commander to 1st Battalion 1st Marines. He was an officer in the Amphibious Ready Group of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit based in Darwin, Northern Territory, training with the Australian Army for humanitarian operations deployment to East Timor until the September 11 attacks. He then led his platoon into Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom to support the War on Terror. Upon his return to the United States in March 2002, he was recommended for Marine reconnaissance training. He also completed Army Airborne School. [4] He subsequently led Second Platoon of Bravo Company of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.[ citation needed ]

Fick left the U.S. Marine Corps as a captain in December 2003, [5] and used the GI Bill to attend Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School. He came to public notice for his writing on military life and the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. [3] His memoir One Bullet Away was a New York Times bestseller, one of The Washington Post's "Best Books of the Year," and won the Colby Award in 2006. [6] [7] [8] [9]

Fick became the chief operating officer (COO) at the Center for a New American Security in 2008 and later was appointed CEO in June 2009. [10]

He was elected to Dartmouth College's board of trustees in April 2012 and served for eight years. [11]

Fick served as the CEO of cybersecurity software company Endgame from 2012 through its acquisition by search company Elastic in 2019, when he became the general manager of Elastic's information security business globally. [12] He was recognized in 2018 by Fast Company magazine as one of the "Most Creative People in Business." [13]

He testified before the United States Senate on Iraq [14] and spoke at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver on August 28, 2008, the night Barack Obama accepted the presidential nomination.[ citation needed ]

He has served on the Military & Veterans Advisory Council at JPMorgan Chase & Co. [15]

Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace & Digital Policy

Fick sworn in as Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy in 2022 Deputy Secretary Sherman Ceremonially Swears in Ambassador Fick (52405123760).jpg
Fick sworn in as Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy in 2022

On June 3, 2022, Fick was nominated as the U.S. State Department’s first Ambassador-at-Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy, leading U.S. diplomacy on cybersecurity, digital, and emerging technology issues. [16] [12] Hearings on his nomination were held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on August 3, 2022. The committee favorably reported his nomination to the Senate floor on September 14. The full Senate confirmed Fick's nomination on September 15 by voice vote, [17] and he was sworn in on September 21. [18]

On February 4, 2023, Fick announced that his personal Twitter account had been hacked. He called the incident one of the "perils of the job". It was unclear who hacked the account or if any unauthorized tweets were being sent from the account. [19]

He led U.S. delegations in venues around the world focused on A.I. governance, following the release of ChatGPT. [20] In November 2023, Ambassador Fick testified before the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee on U.S. diplomacy in support of the responsible governance of artificial intelligence. [21]

In February 2024, he traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine with Director Jen Easterly of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to reaffirm American support for Ukraine's digital defense even as the U.S. Congress delayed funding the supplemental appropriation. [22] They held a public event upon their return at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington, DC. [23]

Ambassador Fick and his team led the creation of the U.S. International Cyberspace and Digital Policy Strategy, released by Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the RSA Conference in San Francisco on May 6, 2024. Fick discussed the strategy publicly at a forum hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations later that week.

Personal life

He resides in Maine with his wife, Margaret Angell, and two daughters. [11]

Fick and his platoon were the subjects of a series of articles in Rolling Stone and the book Generation Kill by the embedded journalist Evan Wright. The articles won the National Magazine Award in 2003. Generation Kill was adapted by David Simon and Ed Burns into a miniseries of the same name for HBO, in which Fick is portrayed by Stark Sands. [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith B. Alexander</span> Former Director of the United States National Security Agency

Keith Brian Alexander is a retired four-star general of the United States Army, who served as director of the National Security Agency, chief of the Central Security Service, and commander of the United States Cyber Command. He previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff, G-2 (Intelligence), United States Army from 2003 to 2005. He assumed the positions of Director of the National Security Agency and Chief of the Central Security Service on August 1, 2005, and the additional duties as Commander United States Cyber Command on May 21, 2010.

A cybersecurity regulation comprises directives that safeguard information technology and computer systems with the purpose of forcing companies and organizations to protect their systems and information from cyberattacks like viruses, worms, Trojan horses, phishing, denial of service (DOS) attacks, unauthorized access and control system attacks. While cybersecurity regulations aim to minimize cyber risks and enhance protection, the uncertainty arising from frequent changes or new regulations can significantly impact organizational response strategies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Moss (hacker)</span> American computer security expert (born 1975)

Jeff Moss, also known as Dark Tangent, is an American hacker, computer and internet security expert who founded the Black Hat and DEF CON computer security conferences.

<i>One Bullet Away</i> Autobiography by Nathaniel Fick

One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer is an autobiography by Nathaniel Fick, published by Houghton-Mifflin in 2005. An account of Nathaniel Fick's time in the United States Marine Corps, it begins with his experiences at Officer Candidate's School in Quantico, Virginia and details his deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq during the War on Terror.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Schmidt</span> American computer security expert (1949 - 2017)

Howard Anthony Schmidt was a partner with Tom Ridge in Ridge Schmidt Cyber LLC, a consultancy company in the field of cybersecurity. He was the Cyber-Security Coordinator of the Obama Administration, operating in the Executive Office of the President of the United States. He announced his retirement from that position on May 17, 2012, effective at the end of the month.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Brzezinski</span> American lawyer and diplomat (born 1965)

Mark Francis Brzezinski is an American lawyer serving as the United States Ambassador to Poland since 2022. He previously served as the United States Ambassador to Sweden from 2011 to 2015 under President Barack Obama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Cyber Command</span> Unified combatant command of the United States Armed Forces responsible for cyber operations

United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense (DoD). It unifies the direction of cyberspace operations, strengthens DoD cyberspace capabilities, and integrates and bolsters DoD's cyber expertise which focus on securing cyberspace.

Cyberwarfare is the use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of information systems for strategic or military purposes. As a major developed economy, the United States is highly dependent on the Internet and therefore greatly exposed to cyber attacks. At the same time, the United States has substantial capabilities in both defense and power projection thanks to comparatively advanced technology and a large military budget. Cyber warfare presents a growing threat to physical systems and infrastructures that are linked to the internet. Malicious hacking from domestic or foreign enemies remains a constant threat to the United States. In response to these growing threats, the United States has developed significant cyber capabilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudy Reyes (actor)</span> American actor

Rodolfo "Rudy" Reyes is an American conservationist, martial arts instructor, actor, and former active duty United States Marine. He is best known for portraying himself in the HBO TV miniseries Generation Kill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Endgame, Inc.</span> American security consulting firms

Endgame provides a cyber operations platform supporting the detection, exploitation, and mitigation of cyber-threats. Endgame was started by executives from ISS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted N. Branch</span> US Navy vice-admiral

Ted N. "Twig" Branch retired as a vice admiral in the United States Navy on 1 October 2016, after serving the last three years of his 37-year career as the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for information warfare. In that capacity, he was the resource sponsor for the N2N6 portfolio which includes program investments for assured command and control, battlespace awareness, and integrated fires. He was the Navy's Chief Information Officer, the Director of Navy Cybersecurity, the leader of the Information Warfare Community, and the Director of Naval Intelligence. Branch was questioned by the Department of Justice regarding the Glenn Defense Marine Asia investigation in November 2013 and his access to classified information was suspended by the Secretary of the Navy. After a three-year investigation, Branch was cleared of all charges.

Presidential Policy Directive 20 (PPD-20), provides a framework for U.S. cybersecurity by establishing principles and processes. Signed by President Barack Obama in October 2012, this directive supersedes National Security Presidential Directive NSPD-38. Integrating cyber tools with those of national security, the directive complements NSPD-54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-23.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabi Siboni</span>

Gabriel "Gabi" Siboni is a colonel in the Israel Defense Forces Reserve service, and a senior research fellow and the director of the Military and Strategic Affairs and Cyber Security programs at the Institute for National Security Studies. Additionally, he serves as editor of the tri-yearly published, Military and Strategic Affairs academic journal at INSS. Siboni is a senior expert on national security, military strategy and operations, military technology, cyber warfare, and force buildup. Siboni is an Associate Professor, working specifically in the management of Cyber Security and a part-time lecturer at the Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael S. Rogers</span> U.S. Navy admiral and intelligence official (born 1959)

Michael S. Rogers is a retired four-star admiral of the United States Navy. Rogers served as the second commander of the United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) from April 2014 to May 2018 while concurrently serving as the 17th director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and as chief of the Central Security Service (CSS). During his tenure, he helped transform and elevate U.S. Cyber Command into a unified combatant command. Rogers relinquished command to General Paul M. Nakasone on May 4, 2018 and retired from the Navy a few weeks later on June 1, 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Nakasone</span> United States Army general

Paul Miki Nakasone is a retired general in the United States Army who served as the commander of United States Cyber Command. He concurrently served as the director of the National Security Agency and as chief of the Central Security Service. Nakasone took command of the United States Second Army and Army Cyber Command in October 2016, until the Second Army's inactivation in March 2017. In May 2018, he became head of the National Security Agency, the Central Security Service and the United States Cyber Command.

The Marine Corps Cyber Auxiliary is a volunteer organization designed to attract cybersecurity experts in aiding United States Marine Corps cyberspace readiness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jen Easterly</span> American government official

Jen Easterly is an American intelligence and former military official who is serving as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Biden administration. She was confirmed by a voice vote in the Senate on July 12, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Heritage</span> U.S. Marine Corps general

Ryan P. Heritage is a United States Marine Corps major general who serves as the director of operations of the United States Cyber Command. He previously served as the commander of the Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command and Marine Corps Forces Space Command, and Marine Corps Information Command.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office of the National Cyber Director</span>

The Office of the National Cyber Director is an agency in the United States Government statutorily responsible for advising the President of the United States on matters related to cybersecurity. It was established in 2021.

References

  1. ↑ "Standing down". Baltimore Sun. 2005-11-08. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  2. ↑ "About the Author". Oettinger & Associates. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2012.
  3. 1 2 A 'Reluctant Warrior' in Iraq U.S. News & World Report via Internet Archive. Published January 1, 2006. Archived October 6, 2012. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Untitled Document". o-a-inc.com. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  5. ↑ "Nathaniel Fick". Abebooks. Archived from the original on 2016-10-26. Retrieved 2014-08-06.
  6. ↑ Cave, Damien (2005-11-20). "Few and Proud". The New York Times . Retrieved 2014-11-20.
  7. ↑ Simpson, Mark (2006-03-26). "One Bullet Away: the making of a Marine officer by Nathaniel Fick". The Independent . Archived from the original on December 6, 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-20.
  8. ↑ Brown, Jeffrey (2005-11-11). "Nathaniel Fick: "One Bullet Away"". PBS . Retrieved 2014-11-20.
  9. ↑ "Tawani Foundation - Colby Award". Archived from the original on 2015-09-24.
  10. ↑ "Nathaniel C. Fick". Center for a New American Security. Archived from the original on March 22, 2012. Retrieved March 23, 2012.
  11. 1 2 "Nathaniel C. Fick '99". 10 July 2023.
  12. 1 2 "Former Marine, cyber exec Nate Fick selected as State's inaugural cyber ambassador". CyberScoop. 2022-06-01. Retrieved 2022-06-03.
  13. ↑ "Meet Nate Fick, one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People 2018". Fast Company.
  14. ↑ "Nate Fick at DPC Hearing in Chicago". YouTube. October 12, 2006. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved March 23, 2012.
  15. ↑ "JPMorgan Chase Appoints Jill Biden to Military and Veterans Affairs External Advisory Council". www.jpmorganchase.com. Retrieved 2022-06-03.
  16. ↑ "President Biden Announces Key Nominees". The White House. 3 June 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  17. ↑ "PN2223 - Nomination of Nathaniel Fick for Department of State, 117th Congress (2021-2022)". www.congress.gov. 7 June 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  18. ↑ "Nathaniel C. Fick". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2022-09-22.
  19. ↑ Lyngaas, Sean (2023-02-05). "America's top cyber diplomat says his Twitter account was hacked". CNN . Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  20. ↑ Politico Staff, Politico Staff (March 26, 2024). "Inside the Global Battle for AI".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ↑ "State Department and Cyber Officials Testify on Artificial Intelligence and U.S. Competitiveness | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  22. ↑ "US will continue providing cyber aid to Ukraine, says cyber ambassador". therecord.media. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  23. ↑ "The Global Dimension of Ukraine's Cyber Defense: A conversation with Ambassador Nathaniel C. Fick and Director Jen Easterly | German Marshall Fund of the United States". www.gmfus.org. 2024-02-15. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  24. ↑ "Stark Sands: Lt. Nathaniel Fick". imdb.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.