The Role of State Leadership
Texas has recognized the importance of statewide coordination through the creation of the Texas Cyber Command. That was an important step. It signaled that cybersecurity is not just a local IT concern but a matter of statewide significance.
The Legislature had reason to act. Texas has one of the largest economies in the world. Our cities and counties manage water systems, transportation networks, courts, public health systems, and billions of dollars in public transactions every year. To do that efficiently, local governments rely on vendors, cloud platforms, cooperative contracts, and regional service models.
That approach makes sense. It saves money and allows smaller jurisdictions to access modern technology without building everything from scratch.
But shared systems also mean shared risk.
The Texas Cyber Command has an opportunity to set a new standard by investing in comprehensive monitoring and coordinated response models that work for cities large and small. Smaller jurisdictions in particular benefit from shared expertise and consistent standards. A well-structured statewide approach can help reduce uneven protection while respecting local control.
This is not about centralizing every decision. It is about strengthening the foundation that all local governments depend on.
Recent events illustrate exactly why this statewide focus matters.
Shared Systems Bring Shared Risk
The recent ransomware attack on BridgePay, a third-party payment processor used by local governments across the country, disrupted online payment systems for cities and public entities, including some in Texas. While reports indicate that sensitive payment data may not have been stolen, the operational disruption was still significant. Residents were unable to pay utility bills online. Portals went offline. Local staff had to shift to manual processes while also fielding questions from the public.
For many Texans, this may have seemed like a temporary inconvenience. For local governments, however, it was a clear reminder of how dependent public services have become on interconnected digital systems that are often outside direct local control.
When a vendor like BridgePay is hit with ransomware, the disruption does not stay contained within one company. It affects every public entity that depends on that system. Even if a city’s own network was not breached, its ability to process payments and serve residents can still be interrupted.
The lesson is not that shared services are a mistake. It is that resilience has to be built into the way those services are structured and overseen.
Rethinking Trust in a Digital Environment
For years, many cybersecurity strategies were built around the idea of a secure perimeter. If you could keep attackers out of your internal network, you were largely protected. Once inside, users and systems were often treated as trusted by default.
That model does not reflect how modern attacks work.
Ransomware frequently spreads through stolen credentials, compromised vendor connections, or legitimate remote access tools. Once an attacker gains a foothold, the damage depends on how much access is available and how quickly suspicious activity is detected.
This is why the concept of Zero Trust has gained traction in public policy circles. Zero Trust does not refer to a single product. It is a way of thinking about system design. It assumes that no user, device, or connection should be automatically trusted simply because it is inside the network. Access is limited. Privileges are narrowly defined. Systems are segmented so that a single compromise does not become a system-wide failure.
For policymakers, the important questions are practical ones. If a vendor connection is compromised, what can it reach? If credentials are stolen, how far can they travel? If a payment system goes down, which other services depend on it?
Those are governance questions as much as technical ones.
Detection and Response Capacity Matter
Even with strong preventive measures, no system is immune from attack. What often determines the outcome is how quickly unusual activity is detected and how effectively agencies coordinate a response.
Many local governments in Texas operate with small IT teams. They do not have round-the-clock security operations staff monitoring networks for suspicious behavior. At the same time, ransomware actors move quickly. Hours can make a difference.
If local governments lack consistent visibility into what is happening across their systems, they may only discover a problem when services stop functioning. By that point, the disruption has already occurred.
The BridgePay incident did not necessarily result in widespread data theft, but it demonstrated how operational disruption alone can strain public systems. Improving detection and response capabilities reduces downtime and limits cascading impacts.
This is where statewide coordination becomes essential.
At the same time, Texas and other states are navigating the effects of the partial federal government shutdown. Staffing reductions and furloughs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, have limited routine coordination with states. Some officials have reported canceled meetings and uncertainty around cybersecurity grants and support. Others have said they were told that federal resources would be available primarily for large-scale national security events during the shutdown.
Taken together, these developments highlight an uncomfortable reality. Texas cannot build its cybersecurity posture around the assumption that vendors will always function perfectly or that federal support will always be immediately available.
Building Resilience Before the Next Incident
The combination of a vendor ransomware attack and temporary reductions in federal cybersecurity coordination offers Texas a useful moment of reflection. Federal partnerships remain important, but they can fluctuate. Vendors provide critical services, but they can be compromised.
Resilience requires planning for those realities rather than assuming they will not happen.
Texas has a strong track record of preparing for hurricanes, grid emergencies, and other large-scale disruptions. Cybersecurity deserves the same level of steady attention. That means clear standards, coordinated response frameworks, thoughtful procurement strategies, and consistent monitoring capabilities.
When residents cannot pay bills or access services, they do not distinguish between a vendor outage and a government failure. They simply expect reliability.
Strengthening Texas’ cybersecurity posture is ultimately about meeting that expectation. It is about ensuring that public services continue to function even when parts of the digital ecosystem falter.
The BridgePay attack should not be viewed as an isolated event. It should be seen as a reminder that digital resilience is now part of responsible governance in Texas.
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