However, she added, OT security can’t be accomplished with IT-centric access applications like TeamViewer, Anydesk, or similar software. OT remote access providers include Claroty, Dispel, Wallix, and Cyolo, she said.

Among the special capabilities that an OT remote access tool needs are granular access control, the ability for an admin or process engineer to cancel a session if they see suspicious activity, and the recording of every access session for forensic investigations.

It’s true that an attacker on the IT side can erase all corporate data and/or do so much damage that PCs and servers can’t be rebuilt. But, as Tal Laufer, Claroty’s vice-president of products, pointed out, an OT hacker “can blow up stuff, and stop machinery that cost millions of dollars per hour from working.”