Key trends accelerating Industrial Secure Remote Access (ISRA) Adoption 

As remote connectivity becomes increasingly embedded in industrial workflows—supporting everything from routine maintenance to rapid emergency response—it plays a crucial role in bridging the traditional divide between IT and OT.

According to the recent report “OT Security Vendor Profile: SSH Communications Security (SSH)” by the OT security specialists at Industrial Cyber, Industrial Secure Remote Access (ISRA) has become a foundational control for safeguarding operational technology (OT) environments.

With critical operational tasks now often performed remotely by vendors, contractors, or maintenance engineers, ISRA has a direct influence on an organization’s safety posture, operational resilience, and regulatory compliance. 

In their latest analysis, Industrial Cyber evaluates, compares, and helps organizations select ISRA solutions that meet the unique requirements of complex OT environments. 

Key drivers accelerating ISRA adoption   

Regulatory mandates. There is increasing regulatory pressure for OT organizations to align with legal requirements, as news of devastating breaches hit the headlines. Therefore, businesses need to align with frameworks like IEC 62443 as well as directives such as NIS2 more diligently than ever. They also need to take note of sector-specific requirements for remote access governance that have direct impact on them. 

Enabling secure remote operations. As essential maintenance and diagnostic activities continue to shift toward remote and digital execution, they become exposed to cyber risks that were not present when plants, fleets, and factories operated as isolated, closed systems.

Compounding the challenge, many industrial organizations still lack the expertise and skill sets to select and operate the proper technologies that establish secure remote connections efficiently and securely.  This, unfortunately, results in operational delays and slower response in critical or emergency situations.

Industrial Cyber emphasizes that controlled, identity-bound, and fully auditable access to critical tasks is key to ensuring secure remote access functions as an operational and business enabler—without introducing new pathways for malicious actors. 

Vendor and contractor access. In their analysis, Industrial Cyber highlights how ISRA plays a crucial role in managing and securing vendor and contractor access. In many cases, third-party teams rely on shared vendor accounts, hardcoded credentials, or VPNs that provide overly broad network access for performing critical tasks.

Compounding the risk, OT environments frequently rely on legacy hardware that lacks modern encryption capabilities, leaving these connections especially vulnerable. 

By centralizing access governance, securely managing vendor credentials, streamlining access-request workflows, and maintaining consistent audit trails, industrial organizations can regain control over third-party access.

Leading ISRA solutions extend these capabilities across geographically distributed environments, isolating both proprietary OT and standard IT protocols from exposure—while still enabling individual sites to independently approve and manage their own connections. 

Push towards Zero Trust ISRA. Industrial Cyber underscores the growing need for OT organizations to move away from perimeter-based, static security models and embrace dynamic, Zero Trust approaches.

In practical terms, this shift requires reducing dependence on traditional firewalls and VPNs, which often provide overly broad access, rely on persistent authorizations, and lack the flexibility to enforce granular controls. Transitioning from perimeter-driven architectures to identity-first, and continuously validating access models enables organizations to strengthen security while supporting modern operational requirements. 

Industrial Cyber: SSH’s solutions strengthen access governance with minimal disruption 

Industrial Cyber recognizes two solutions from SSH. 1) PrivX OT is purpose-built for industrial environments. The solution provides passwordless, keyless, and just-in-time industrial secure remote access using short-lived certificates and micro-segmentation to reduce risk. 2) NQX delivers quantum-safe, high-speed network encryption for site-to-site connectivity. 

 “SSH’s approach allows organizations to strengthen access governance, prepare for emerging security requirements, and do so in a way that minimizes operational disruption—an alignment that is not easily achieved in the industrial space,”  - Jonathon Gordon, Directing Analyst, Industrial Cyber, Author of “OT Security Vendor Profile: SSH Communications Security (SSH)”

Other highlights for PrivX OT and NQX include: 

• Zero Trust secure remote access for IT, OT, and hybrid environments 

• Protocol isolation for OT protocols (Modbus TCP, OPC UA) and legacy systems 

• Agentless architecture for both legacy and modern systems. allowing secure access to isolated environments and OT system with fixed, non-modifiable firmware

• Integrated privileged access management (PAM) with secrets vaulting, credential-less authentication, and just-in-time (JIT) access 

• Quantum-safe, high-speed and low-latency network encryption

Read the full report by Industrial Cyber "OT Security Vendor Profile: SSH Communications Security (SSH)" >>>  

Learn more about PrivX OT and NQX.