There’s a moment in every conversation about public-sector cybersecurity when the room splits. Half the room still assumes cyber incidents are occasional administrative headaches. The other half - usually the people closest to operational pressure - knows the truth: the threat landscape now behaves like a live battlefield. Not metaphorically. Not dramatically. Practically.
And that shift creates a difficult question for public agencies: how long can institutions built on slow decision cycles, legacy systems, and fragmented oversight withstand a threat environment that behaves with military precision? This is the question Rodrick Roxas-Powers keeps putting on the table. Not to alarm, but to ground the discussion in reality.
Public agencies remain the backbone of public infrastructure. They are in charge of things like transportation, healthcare, energy, education, and responding to emergencies. Whether people think about them or not, society depends on them. When these systems are hacked, the effect isn't just a "technical inconvenience"; it stops all operations.
So, if adversaries approach cyber operations with battlefield discipline, Rodrick Roxas Powers of AZ argues that public agencies must respond with the same level of structure, preparation, and foresight.
Rodrick Roxas-Powers says that enemies no longer tell the difference between military and civilian systems. This is one of his most common points. For them, disruption is disruption, and the fastest way to make an area less stable is to put stress on the systems that people use every day.
Water facilities, local governments, school districts, public hospitals, and transportation networks - all have seen the consequences of underprepared security models. Attackers choose them precisely because they understand something most leaders hesitate to say aloud: the public sector remains one of the easiest entry points into critical infrastructure.
The goal of attackers has changed from stealing data to changing it in order to delay services, mess up processes, or cause confusion. These actions are not random; they are planned tests of how strong you are. And each test that goes well makes you want to try again.
Ready for battle Cyber standards are not meant to turn civilian organizations into military bases. They're about having the discipline that keeps complicated systems running when they're under a lot of stress. The term refers to a way of thinking that includes clear escalation paths, structured processes, consistent training, and technology that doesn't break down when pressure is applied.
As Rodrick Roxas Powers of AZ explains it, public agencies deal with the same category of threats that military systems face - only without the advantage of uniform structure. Battlefield-ready standards help bridge that gap through:
These ways of doing things weren't made to be easy. They were made to last, and public bodies need both more and more.
Public agencies often use systems that are decades old and have been patched so many times that the original design doesn't even look like it did when it was first built. It takes time and money to improve infrastructure, but attackers aren't waiting for procurement rounds. Because they weren't made for current threats, legacy systems act like doors that aren't locked.
Rodrick Roxas-Powers highlights a reality leaders rarely vocalize: legacy systems don’t fail gracefully. They fail loudly. They fail publicly. And they fail at moments when support delays translate to service breakdowns.
Modern attackers use tailored phishing, impersonation, deepfake prompts, and carefully timed social engineering schemes. A training model built on generic examples cannot prepare staff for targeted manipulation.
This is where insights from Rodrick Roxas Powers of AZ become especially relevant. He advocates training models that focus on:
Every sign points to an environment where attacks grow faster, more coordinated, and more intertwined with geopolitical interests. Public agencies cannot sidestep this reality. They cannot wait for funding cycles, external reviews, or post-incident action plans.
The new age of cyber resilience requires leaders to act before pressure arrives - not after headlines appear.
That preparation is exactly what Rodrick Roxas Powers of AZ has been urging through his work: structure, clarity, disciplined planning, and a willingness to adopt standards historically reserved for high-stakes environments.
The time for public bodies to act is now. They face threats that act like they would on the battlefield, and the systems that are supposed to protect them can't be built on old ideas.
It's not a big deal to adopt standards that are ready for war. It's not too extreme. Being a responsible boss. Rodrick Roxas-Powers says over and over that resilience starts before an event. It is built through planning, strengthened through discipline, and kept up by leaders who know what is at risk.
