Glossary · Industrial cybersecurity
Remote access
Also known as: remote maintenance, remote service
German: Remote access sicherer fernzugriff
In industrial cybersecurity, remote access is access to a machine or control system from outside its local trust boundary, for example by a supplier’s service engineer over the internet. It crosses security zones and must be controlled, authenticated and logged.
- Cybersecurity
- Compliance
In one sentence
Remote access reaches a machine or control system from outside its local trust boundary and must be controlled, authenticated and logged.
Example
A robot manufacturer’s service engineer connects to a customer’s welding cell through a gateway that the operator enables on request, with multi-factor login and a session recording; motion commands require confirmation by an operator on site.
How it applies
- Cybersecurity: Route remote access through a defined conduit, with strong authentication, least-privilege permissions, session time limits and logging. Undocumented modems or remote-desktop tools are a common weakness.
- Machine safety: A remote user cannot see who is standing at the machine. Remote start, parameter changes and motion commands need rules, such as local confirmation, restricted modes or read-only access, and must never override local safety functions.
- Technical documentation: The manual should state what remote access can do, how the operator enables and disables it, and which local precautions apply during a remote session.
- Evidence: Record who connected, when and what was changed, and treat changes made remotely like any other change.
Remote access vs. remote monitoring
Remote monitoring reads data from the machine; remote access can also change it. Read-only monitoring still needs protection, but write access to control or safety parameters creates a safety-security interface and needs much stricter controls.