The expansion of remote working due to COVID-19 has triggered unintended consequences for organizations worldwide. The pandemic led to an increase in the number of connected devices and democratized remote access across supply chains and operations, including critical infrastructure. Organizations became increasingly dependent on third parties to maintain business continuity, with remote access posing risks to oil and gas pipeline operations. These risks were particularly concerning for one pipeline operator that relies heavily on third parties to support the full spectrum of its oil and gas operations via remote access. Its operational technology personnel, including third-party service providers, must be able to command operations remotely while allowing security teams to maintain the same level of visibility, control and response within a maximum of six hours as required for onsite personnel. To safeguard operational networks from threats introduced via third-party remote users, Claroty and Schneider Electric partnered with the pipeline operator to equip its personnel and third parties with a highly secure and unified capability for remote maintenance. Any of the operator’s third-party service providers can now use this capability to access its operational network remotely – all the while upholding adequate security requirements and without posing any additional risks to pipeline operations. With such unified remote access requirements, the operator minimized risk exposure and improved the visibility and control of the large footprint of third parties remotely accessing pipeline operations