From: Defense News

By ARAM ROSTON

Endgame Systems is a secretive cyber company with an intriguing specialty. The firm’s chief product, software called Bonesaw, is a “cyber targeting application” that tracks servers and routers worldwide, mapping the hardware attached to the Web.

These are the access points through which the National Security Agency, Cyber Command and other U.S. agencies, could launch operations against adversaries and threats.

In February 2011, Endgame was briefly caught up in scandal. The anti-authoritarian group Anonymous hacked into a firm called HBGary Federal and dug up documents and emails showing some companies had discussed a dirty-tricks campaign against activist organizations. Endgame Systems became embroiled when a capabilities briefing showed up in one of the Anonymous hacks.

Endgame quickly stepped into the shadows, shutting itself to public view.

In what may be a dramatic sign of the times, that’s changing, with the introduction of an extraordinary new pick for a chief executive officer for Endgame.

Four years ago, the HBO series “Generation Kill,” based on a book of the same name, dramatized the experiences of a Marine reconnaissance platoon during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Leading the platoon with thoughtful determination was a young Marine reconnaissance lieutenant named Nathaniel Fick.

Before Iraq, the real-life Fick had helicoptered into Afghanistan during the initial U.S. operations there. He was part of the generation forged by the military actions of the past decade. He left the Marines and after getting a graduate degree at Harvard Business School headed an influential think tank, the Center for a New American Security. That put him in the circles of the national security elite, giving him access to the inside-the-Beltway intellectuals, writers and officials who guide policy.

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