AppGate Expands Zero Trust for OT, Controlling Access and Simplifying Compliance for Critical Infrastructure Operators

New Session Governance Capabilities Keep a Person in Charge of Every High-Risk Decision Without Disrupting Operations

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AppGate, a leader in Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) for enterprise IT, OT and AI, today announced that is has expanded its Zero Trust offering for operational technology (OT) with Session Governance capabilities that help critical infrastructure operators reduce third-party access risk, simplify compliance audits and protect operational uptime. The expansion builds on the ZTNA for OT offering AppGate introduced in March 2026. The initial release of AppGate ZTNA for OT controlled who could access critical systems. This release governs what happens during each session and gives supervisors the final say when activity moves outside the approved scope.

AppGate Session Governance Provides:

• Session recording
• Live session monitoring
• Supervisory session termination
• Credential vaulting and injection

This release also adds the ability to use asset context from an organization's existing OT asset inventory platform to drive access policy.

Critical infrastructure operators depend on employees, contractors, vendors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to keep plants, grids and facilities running, and much of that work happens remotely. Each of those connections carries business risk. A compromised vendor credential can become a path to a physical process, and an unplanned interruption can halt production, disrupt power or water service or affect patient care. Auditors and regulators also expect operators to show not only who accessed critical systems, but what they did once connected.

Many OT security tools can detect anomalous activity but leave operators without a governed way to respond. Fully automated remediation creates a different risk, because one incorrect action can interrupt a physical process. AppGate ZTNA for OT closes that gap by giving operators control over every phase of remote access: who can connect, what they can do once connected and how supervisors respond when activity moves outside the approved scope, with a person always in the decision loop.

"Every remote session into an OT environment is a business decision, and operators need to govern it that way," said Leo Taddeo, CEO at AppGate. "AppGate ZTNA for OT gives organizations control over who can reach critical systems, what they can do during a session and how supervisors respond when activity moves outside the approved scope. Operators can reduce third-party risk and prove compliance while preserving the uptime, safety and human judgment these environments require."

AppGate ZTNA for OT works alongside the monitoring and engineering tools already in place, so operators strengthen governance without replacing existing investments. This release also adds the ability to consume asset inventory and asset groupings from an organization's existing OT asset inventory platform as inputs to access policy, so entitlements follow asset context rather than static address lists. Security teams gain a verifiable record of authorized access, while operations teams retain control over any action that could affect uptime or safety.

Key benefits include:

• Reducing third-party risk without slowing the work: Give vendors and OEMs access only to the approved assets, protocols and time window, and inject vaulted credentials at session start so third parties never see, hold or reuse them. Operators can retire standing VPN accounts that must otherwise be tracked and revoked.
• Proving compliance with less manual effort: Fail-closed session recording captures governed sessions end to end, so if recording cannot start, the session does not start. When Session Governance is enabled, this evidence supports IEC 62443, NERC CIP-005 Interactive Remote Access, NIST SP 800-82 and Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) assessments.
• Protecting uptime and safety with human-controlled response: Supervisors monitor active sessions in real time and can end a session when high-risk activity requires intervention, rather than relying on automated actions that could interrupt a physical process.
• Containing the impact of a compromised credential: Limit each connection to its approved scope and keep everything else cloaked, so a stolen credential or compromised endpoint cannot be used to move laterally across the OT environment.

AppGate ZTNA for OT uses the same on-premises, direct-routed architecture as AppGate ZTNA and runs on a NIAP Common Criteria certified platform with FIPS-validated cryptography. Because it operates on-premises and in isolated or disconnected networks, access and governance do not depend on a round trip to the cloud. Organizations get one Zero Trust approach across IT and OT, while each environment operates according to its own risk, performance and availability requirements.

AppGate ZTNA for OT is generally available for customers running AppGate ZTNA v7.0 and above. For more information:

• Visit the AppGate ZTNA for OT webpage
• Register for the AppGate ZTNA for OT webinar
• Read the AppGate ZTNA for OT datasheet
• Read the AppGate ZTNA for OT blog

About AppGate

AppGate secures an organization's most valuable assets with its Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) Platform. It’s the leading ZTNA platform for enterprise IT, OT and AI protection. AppGate is the only direct-routed ZTNA solution built for peak performance, data sovereignty and seamless interoperability. AppGate safeguards enterprises and government agencies worldwide. Learn more at appgate.com.