Operational technology environments often operate under vendor-controlled access arrangements - persistent VPNs, shared accounts and unmanaged remote connections that compromise security perimeters. This asymmetry persists because vendors hold critical leverage: uptime guarantees, proprietary tools, specialized expertise and warranty terms that force operational teams to accept security compromises as the cost of maintaining availability.

Led by Gabriel Diaz, senior solutions architect at Xona Systems, this session will explore:

• Business, contractual and cultural forces that lead organizations to cede control over OT access, and the security risks these arrangements create;
• Practical architectures for reclaiming control through session brokering, just-in-time access, multifactor authentication and ephemeral credentials without breaking SLAs;
• Procurement and legal strategies to embed warranty-safe security requirements, vendor risk tiers and incident response obligations aligned with IEC 62443 and NIST standards.