State Cyber, Digital Policy Lead Nominee Cites Pro-Multistakeholder, 5G Security Stances

The nominee for ambassador at large-cyberspace and digital policy told Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Wednesday he intends to “try to expand” the number of nations signed on to the Declaration for the Future of the Internet that the U.S., EU and more than 60 other countries signed in April (see 2204280043). Nate Fick said during the committee hearing he supports deploying funding included in the Chips and Science Act (HR-4346) to develop secure 5G technology and believes the U.S. needs to promote open radio access networks and other technologies to ensure telecom infrastructure security. Fick, if confirmed, would also head the State Department’s new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (see 2206070047).

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and other panel members were universally supportive of Fick during the hearing. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, praised the nominee as clearly qualified to “create global coalitions to combat ransomware, rebuke governments for attacking critical infrastructure and set transparent, Western-friendly rules for cutting-edge technologies whose vast potential and many applications still remain unclear.”

Menendez urged Fick to “create a productive relationship” with the committee once confirmed, as he works to set up the CDP Bureau, due to panel members’ strong interest in tech issues under State’s purview. Fick said he plans to “assert” the department's “rightful place in the interagency process on the topics of cybersecurity and digital policy.” State “doesn’t get its due as it relates to its critical role in the context of the interagency process,” Menendez said.

“We must promote new innovations such as” ORAN “and work to ensure the security of the entire telecommunications ecosystem upon which we all rely,” Fick said: Global telecom security “is essential” and the U.S. can't improve it on its own. “This is a global network of hardware and infrastructure, and, if confirmed, I would work to deploy the resources appropriated in” HR-4346 for the Multilateral Telecommunications Security Fund to address the matter, he said in response to a question from Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D. Fick suggested using some of the funding to promote ORAN deployments in the Indo-Pacific region.

“We must support open, transparent standards and the multistakeholder model of internet governance that has enabled decades of innovation,” Fick said: “We must, at every turn, champion a positive vision for digital freedom and digital inclusion while working to combat digital authoritarianism. This means partnering with civil society, the private sector, and other governments to understand how digital technologies can help people exercise their human rights and reach their full potential. We must harness these technologies to strengthen democratic governance instead of allowing them to be used for repression.”

Fick told Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., he believes the Declaration on the Future of the Internet is an “aspirational framework and it is one that has a lot of power as a galvanizing set of principles to help build a voluntary coalition of like-minded partners and allies who share our view of an open, free interoperable secure digital future.” He believes he can convince additional nations to sign the document “by telling a positive, affirmative story” about “the power of technology.”

Fick’s statement got praise from Booker and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. The internet “has become a forum that brings people together to support freedom of expression and human rights,” Van Hollen said: “Authoritarian regimes recognize that, which is why they’re so determined to block off access to that kind of information.” The “challenge for us” is to ensure the authoritarian model used by China and others “is not exported” to other countries, particularly in Africa, he said.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, asked how Fick would steer the new bureau in a way that ensures its role doesn’t become “duplicative” of work in the office of National Cyber Director, the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency and other federal entities. It “really will be the responsibility of the individuals who have these jobs to work together” so there isn’t overlap, Portman said.

Fick believes his experience as a U.S. Marine Corps officer and as an executive at cybersecurity firm Elastic and the Center for a New American Security gave him “an appreciation for a clear chain of command” and the need for accountability. “I have a strong conviction that” his new role fills a gap that has existed in the U.S. government on cyber diplomacy that is distinct from what CISA and other agencies do. “I have full confidence we can carve out the right swim lanes and I hope that if confirmed … we could create clear lines of responsibility” on each agency’s cyber duties “that outlive any individual,” he said.