Updated: May 28, 2025
In 2025, the growth of cyber-physical systems (CPS) in critical infrastructure is not just a trend, it's the operational reality. Organizations across sectors, from manufacturing to energy, are increasingly reliant on interconnected industrial control systems (ICS). This shift, while driving unprecedented productivity and cost efficiency, also requires organizations to rethink how they manage and secure access to these vital assets.
Expanded connectivity can put a target on your back. A recent Claroty survey indicates that nearly half of respondents (45%) reported a financial impact of $500,000 or more in the last 12 months from cyber attacks affecting CPS. While it's clear that critical infrastructure organizations require industrial remote access for myriad reasons — including enabling third-party support, remote maintenance, improved data monitoring, and significantly reducing operational costs — traditional remote access solutions like VPNs and jump servers are proving increasingly ineffective in preventing cyber attacks. These legacy tools were simply not designed for the unique constraints and heightened security demands of modern CPS environments.
It's crucial to understand that OT remote access, specifically tailored for industrial environments, differs fundamentally from IT remote access. While IT remote access manages systems like servers, workstations, and databases, OT remote access is designed for systems including industrial control systems (ICS), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and other devices that directly monitor and control physical industrial processes. The consequences of a cyberattack on these OT systems are far more severe than on IT systems, with the potential to cause physical damage, environmental impacts, widespread disruption of critical services, or compromised public safety.
Despite these stark differences, many organizations in 2025 are still relying on traditional IT-centric solutions like VPNs and jump servers to secure their critical infrastructure. This fundamental flaw comes into play because these solutions were never built for the unique operational constraints, stringent security considerations, or specialized personnel needs of CPS environments. So, organizations require a purpose-built industrial remote access solution to meet the specific needs of the OT domain.
Industrial remote access refers to the ability to securely connect to, monitor, manage, and troubleshoot industrial equipment and operations from a remote location. In 2025, this capability is no longer just about convenience. It's now essential for maintaining efficiency and productivity. It empowers engineers and technicians to quickly respond to issues, perform routine checks, or conduct proactive maintenance without the time, cost, and risk associated with being physically present at the site.
Beyond immediate issue resolution, industrial remote access is critical for enabling:
Reduced downtime. Quick response times mean issues are addressed before they escalate, ensuring high system availability and resilience in critical sites.
Continuous monitoring and data collection. Real-time insights from geographically dispersed assets enable predictive maintenance and optimized operations.
Enhanced safety. For industries with hazardous conditions, remote access enables personnel to manage systems from a safe distance, mitigating safety risks.
As such, organizations, like yours, require a purpose-built industrial remote access solution to meet the specific needs of the OT domain.
A modern, purpose-built industrial remote access solution offers distinct advantages crucial for 2025's industrial landscape. Let’s walk through four of them that should be top priority for your organization.
A solution designed specifically for the OT domain provides seamless, secure access for internal teams and trusted third-party vendors. By effectively reducing incident resolution, industrial remote access ensures high system availability and resilience, with a direct boost to productivity.
The right industrial remote access solution provides essential security controls to protect your organization’s OT systems against unauthorized access and identity risks. This comprehensive approach significantly reduces the risk landscape, and strengthens network defenses against both internal threats and sophisticated threat actors.
A scalable industrial remote access solution simplifies administrative tasks by operating seamlessly across both on-premises and cloud environments. A centralized management system ensures uniform security policies for user identities, which are crucial for maintaining consistent security measures across all critical assets.
Complying with organizational standards and the ever-changing regulatory requirements of 2025 is essential for effectively managing the identity lifecycle across the CPS landscape. A purpose-built industrial remote access solution provides the necessary controls for real-time logging and auditing of user identities. This is crucial for maintaining comprehensive audit trails and meeting stringent regulatory requirements, such as those from NIS2, IEC-62443, and NERC-CIP.
Despite the clear benefits, industrial remote access faces growing security challenges. They include:
Alarmingly, 55% of organizations still do not use a CPS-specific remote access solution when providing access to their operational environments. Traditional solutions like VPNs, commonly used in OT environments, now introduce considerable risks and inefficiencies. These solutions often create direct connectivity to lower levels of the OT environment, frequently violating the fundamental principles of the Purdue Model control hierarchy. Similarly, solutions like jump servers, while offering some isolation, remain inefficient, costly to manage, and time-consuming, which further amplifies the challenges of secure remote access.
Over the past four years, there has been a significant escalation in cyberattacks by nation-states and sophisticated criminal organizations targeting manufacturing and critical infrastructure. These incidents have taken down electrical grids in Ukraine, halted production, and impacted the safe transport of fuel. The rapid convergence of IT and OT, coupled with the increased adoption of remote access, has dramatically expanded the attack surface of these environments that underpin national security, economic security, and public safety.
Incidents like the South African Weather Service (SAWS) attack have spurred broad regulatory movement by national governments. Many regulatory frameworks such as IEC-62422 and NERC-CIP have evolved to include specific, enhanced cybersecurity provisions for industries designated as critical infrastructure.
The challenges above illustrate a fundamental problem industrial organizations commonly face: a lack of comprehensive asset visibility. Not only do organizations lack invaluable knowledge of what assets are located in their geographically dispersed environments, but they also lack crucial visibility into who is connecting to these potentially unknown assets. With nearly 40 billion IoT connections expected globally by 2029—more than double today’s number—the immediate need for granular visibility into who is accessing the environment, from where, and to which specific asset, is paramount.
Transitioning away from inadequate IT-centric solutions, critical infrastructure organizations urgently require an industrial remote access solution that’s purpose-built to meet the specific needs of the OT domain. This is precisely where Claroty xDome Secure Access comes in.
xDome Secure Access operationalizes the right balance between frictionless access and secure control over interactions with CPS, enhancing productivity, reducing complexities and risk, and ensuring compliance in the diverse and unique architectures across a variety of CPS environments.
In addition, xDome Secure Access enables real-time monitoring and auditing of user sessions, as well as remote incident management. These features allow accelerated resolution of Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), and play a crucial role in helping your team eliminate the need for jump servers and increase overall efficiency.
By integrating foundational security principles such as Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), Privileged Access Management (PAM), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), Claroty xDome Secure Access sets new standards for resilience and operational excellence in the complex CPS landscape of 2025.
To learn more about how Claroty xDome Secure Access can support your CPS security journey, simply request a demo.
Why Remote Access is Considered the #1 Risk to your Cyber-Physical Systems Environment
Five Levels of Secure Access Maturity
Identifying Risks in Third-Party OT Remote Access
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