---
title: About this guide
description: "About this publication Best-Practice Framework for Third-Party OT access 3rd Party Access to Operational Technology in Critical Infrastructure *A Vendor-Neutral Best-Practice Guide for Increased Cybersecurity and Operational Resilience* June 2026 Part 1, Version 1.21 *Published by BifrostConnect, Technical Review by…"
url: "https://bifrostconnect.com/knowledge-center/about-this-guide/"
updated: "2026-07-10"
category: Best Practice Guide
---

# About this guide

About this publication  Best-Practice Framework for Third-Party OT access  3rd Party Access to Operational Technology in Critical Infrastructure *A Vendor-Neutral Best-Practice Guide for Increased Cybersecurity and Operational Resilience* June 2026 Part 1, Version 1.21 *Published by BifrostConnect, Technical Review by Mikael Vingaard, ICSRange.* *This document is Part 1 of a two-part publication. Part 2 (the BifrostConnect Implementation Guide, June 2026) is the implementation companion that maps each Part 1 control to a BifrostConnect deployment. All citations are traceable to primary sources listed at the end of this document - all three files must be distributed together; clause-level traceability depends on the source-verification companion.*     Executive summary  Executive Summary of the Best-Practice Guide for third-party OT access Third-party vendors with remote access into Operational Technology are now the most common entry path for the most consequential cybersecurity incidents in critical infrastructure. This guide describes the access pattern that closes the path, the standards that mandate it, and how a complete programme integrates it. This page is the two-minute version. The rest of the document is the evidence and the detail.     Threats assessed What are the three threats this guide addresses regarding third-party OT access?

The three threats this guide addresses

    Threat 1

Weaponised remote access

Legitimate remote-access channels weaponised by nation-state and criminal actors.

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Known actors

  Volt Typhoon Sandworm CyberAv3ngers    Threat 2

Vendor laptop bypass

Vendor-laptop access into OT segments that bypass enterprise security stacks.

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Known cases

  Colonial Pipeline SektorCERT May 2023 attacks Public report Nov 2023    Threat 3

Standing privilege

Credentials and tunnels that exist whether anyone is using them or not, providing an always-on attack surface.