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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →You can move away from broad VPN access without removing every VPN or making a big-bang cutover. The safer pattern is to authenticate each remote user, route access through a hardened jump host in an OT DMZ, and permit only approved sessions to specific systems. Build that path around documented plant communications, test it with operations and safety owners, and retire the old broad route only after the replacement and its emergency procedures are proven. No general guide can guarantee a zero-interruption migration: the change plan must reflect the plant’s hazards, equipment, and maintenance windows.
What does replacing a flat VPN mean?
A VPN can authenticate a connection and encrypt traffic without necessarily limiting what a connected user can reach inside the plant network. The problem with a flat VPN design is broad network admission: establishing the tunnel may give a remote user more reach than their job requires. That is an architectural weakness, not a property of every VPN.
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Zero trust shifts the access decision away from network location alone and toward the user, device, and specific resource being requested. NIST describes this resource-focused approach in SP 800-207. In OT, the practical goal is to prevent a remote identity from gaining broad reach merely because a tunnel is active. A VPN may remain part of the transport path if authorization and network controls still constrain the session.
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Operational technology controls or monitors physical processes. A blocked communication, incompatible security agent, or poorly timed change can affect visibility, control, safety, or production. Legacy devices may not support modern identity features, and patching, upgrades, testing, and maintenance can be constrained by near-constant availability needs.
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The joint CISA-led guide Adapting Zero Trust Principles to Operational Technology, published April 29, 2026, recommends adapting security to OT’s operational and safety requirements. CISA’s accompanying announcement likewise emphasizes strengthening resilience without jeopardizing mission-critical operations. These principles support careful transition planning; they do not establish a universal procedure that avoids every interruption.
What should the target access path look like?
Use a controlled entry point in the OT DMZ
A practical target pattern is remote user → hardened jump host in the OT DMZ → narrowly permitted connection to an approved OT asset. CISA strongly recommends a hardened jump host in the OT DMZ as the sole remote access entry point for legacy networks. The host should have MFA, regular patching, approved hardening, and continuous monitoring; CISA also advises considering session recording, anomaly detection, enhanced auditing, and time-based constraints.
The jump host is a controlled gateway, not a reason to flatten the network behind it. Configure firewalls and other boundary controls to allow only necessary communications from the DMZ to approved assets. NIST’s Guide to Operational Technology (OT) Security, SP 800-82 Rev. 3 describes DMZs as possible enforcement boundaries and advises limiting communications between adjacent OT levels, tiers, or zones.
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Keep identity and segmentation working together
Identity controls answer who may request a session and under what conditions. Segmentation limits where that session can communicate. Group OT assets using factors such as management authority, trust, criticality, data flow, and location; Purdue or ISA-95 models may help organize zones. The right boundaries depend on site operations, safety, response needs, and control performance, not just a generic network diagram.
Industrial firewalls can enforce network segmentation and isolation, but a firewall appliance alone does not provide identity-first remote access. NIST SP 800-82 Rev. 3 identifies firewalls as commonly used boundary-protection devices. Treat them as one part of the architecture, alongside identity, session controls, and OT-approved operating procedures.
What to establish before changing access
Do not design new rules from the VPN configuration alone. First build a shared operational picture with OT, IT, cybersecurity, engineering, operations, procurement, and safety stakeholders.
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- Inventory assets and ownership: identify the systems to be reached, their owners or management authorities, critical functions, legacy constraints, and vendor dependencies.
- Map legitimate access: list employees, integrators, vendors, destinations, protocols, purposes, and the work windows each access need requires. Confirm the list with the people who operate the systems.
- Document required flows: determine which communications must cross proposed zones or boundaries. Record what could happen if a flow is blocked, changed, or delayed.
- Identify safety and availability constraints: establish the consequences of losing remote visibility or control, the acceptable change windows, and who is authorized to approve or stop a change.
- Account for device limitations: identify systems that cannot use named accounts, MFA agents, or endpoint monitoring, and decide how compensating controls will be managed.
CISA’s OT guide treats visibility, supply-chain considerations, identity and access management, and collaboration as foundational. NIST SP 800-82 Rev. 3 recommends characterizing components and grouping them into levels, tiers, or zones before applying isolation devices.
How to migrate in reviewed stages
The following sequence is a risk-informed implementation approach derived from CISA and NIST guidance, not a mandated or certified no-stop procedure. Apply the site’s management-of-change process and obtain operational approval at each relevant gate.
- Verify the current state. Assemble the approved user, vendor, destination, protocol, and work-window list. Compare it with observed and documented flows, and resolve unexplained access before building replacement rules.
- Design the controlled path. Specify the DMZ jump host, identity checks, MFA, approvals, time limits, credential handling, permitted network flows, logging, and emergency access. Review hazards and failure behavior with OT operations and safety owners.
- Test outside live operations. Validate compatibility and enforcement behavior in a representative non-production environment. Coordinate system-change testing with vendors or integrators as needed. NIST SP 800-82 Rev. 3 advises against using live operational systems to test modifications.
- Pilot a narrow use case. Introduce the new path for a limited, well-understood group or maintenance activity. Have operators observe access, alarms, timing, and control performance, then adjust the policy before expanding.
- Prepare recovery and operator procedures. Document an approved rollback and emergency access method; verify backups and configuration records around changes. Test that operators can disconnect or disable remote access without impairing OT operations.
- Expand and retire the broad route only after acceptance. Confirm that the replacement path, detection, operator procedures, and emergency controls work as intended. Remove the old broad route only after responsible owners accept the new arrangement.
How should employee and vendor sessions be governed?
Make access specific, approved, and time-bounded
Require MFA for remote privileged access. Use named accounts when equipment supports them. For vendor work, approve a defined purpose, target system, and maintenance or support window; use just-in-time access when the extra approval step does not compromise safety or integrity. NIST SP 800-82 Rev. 3 says remote access should be justified, limited to business need, and must not bypass safety or security controls.
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Control credentials and exceptional access
Where legacy equipment still requires shared credentials, vault them, rotate them when feasible, and monitor their use. Define break-glass access in advance, restrict who can invoke it, and review its use. The emergency route should be operationally tested rather than treated as an informal bypass.
Record sessions and keep evidence out of the control path
Record or audit privileged sessions where feasible, and export logs outside the OT network without creating a bidirectional control path back into it. Decide who reviews alerts and records, how quickly, and what response is appropriate to the site. CISA recommends considering session recording and enhanced auditing for the jump-host pattern.
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What monitoring trade-offs should you review?
Endpoint agents and passive monitoring provide different views and impose different constraints. CISA notes that agents can require extensive compatibility testing and may affect warranties. Passive monitoring can avoid installing software on sensitive endpoints, but it may not reveal abuse within a remote session until malicious commands begin. Choose based on the assets, vendors, detection needs, and operational risks at the site; neither approach is a universal answer.
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How do you evaluate a remote-access design or product?
Assess the whole operating model, not just the login screen. Ask vendors to demonstrate relevant behavior in a representative test environment and verify claims against your equipment and procedures. These criteria are grounded in CISA and NIST guidance; they do not establish that any particular product meets them.
| Area | Questions to resolve |
|---|---|
| OT compatibility | Does it support the legacy operating systems, engineering tools, and protocols in scope? What compatibility testing is required, and could agents affect warranties? |
| Identity and authorization | Can it integrate with organizational identity controls, authenticate users and devices as required, separate roles, and authorize access to specific resources? |
| Approval and duration | Can access require an approval, be limited to a defined work window, and be promptly revoked? |
| Privileged-session evidence | What can be recorded or audited? Can logs and alerts be exported for review without opening a return control path into OT? |
| Boundary and deployment | Where does the system sit relative to the DMZ and firewalls? What network flows and management-plane access does it require? |
| Availability and recovery | What happens if the service or connection fails? Can operators safely disconnect remote access, and is there a tested emergency method? |
| Operations and lifecycle | What maintenance, patching, support, rollback, and change-management work will the system add? |
NIST’s 2025 SP 1800-35 documents 19 example zero-trust architecture implementations developed with 24 technology collaborators. These are implementation examples, not OT validation, measured proof of plant uptime, or a substitute for site-specific testing.
Do you need to remove VPNs to implement zero trust in OT?
No. NIST SP 800-82 Rev. 3 lists VPNs among possible temporary remote-access approaches, along with options such as RDP or SSH through firewall rules, screen sharing, and modems. The choice of connection technology does not remove the need for secure procedures and tightly limited access. If a VPN remains, make sure its admitted users cannot use the tunnel as a broad route into the plant; apply identity checks, approvals, segmentation, and session controls around the resources they are allowed to reach.
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