Particularly in the event of disruptions, remote maintenance access for OT must offer greater reliability and performance than for office and building IT. In industrial settings, alternative remote maintenance access points are therefore set up specifically for fast access. These ensure the operational capability of the corresponding ICS even if the respective primary access has failed or cannot provide sufficient performance (e.g. to rectify critical error states on remote systems quickly enough). However, alternative remote maintenance access points like these can be particularly vulnerable to attackers.

If fast alternative remote maintenance access is created (e.g. via mobile communications) but does not fully meet the respective organisation's security requirements, attackers can penetrate the OT network more easily.