The reliance on external support is a functional necessity in modern manufacturing, yet the governance of these connections lags behind technical implementation. According to Secomea’s State of Industrial Remote Access 2026 report, 57% of North American organizations now coordinate with six or more external vendors to maintain OT environments. However, this operational dependence is not matched by oversight: only 46% of these firms maintain full auditability of vendor sessions, and a mere 23% conduct monthly reviews of vendor credentials.

Knud Kegel, CTPO at Secomea, notes that cyberattacks increasingly weaponize legitimate remote access rather than breaching perimeters. The data suggests that success requires a shift away from fragmented VPNs and vendor-specific tools toward centralized governance models. Organizations that integrate IT and OT oversight report lower incident rates, underscoring that effective security relies on a blend of identity verification, just-in-time access, and rapid revocation protocols. As industrial ecosystems become more complex, the ability to demonstrate exactly who accessed a system—and why—is becoming as critical to production as the remote connectivity itself.