Beyond Air-Gap: Transitioning Rail Infrastructure to an Identity-Centric Zero Trust Architecture

For decades, the primary defense for rail signaling, command, and control systems was "security by isolation." However, the acceleration of digital transformation—driven by the need for predictive maintenance, remote asset management, and high-speed connectivity; has rendered the traditional air-gap a relic of the past. As rail networks converge with IT and IoT, the industry faces a critical inflection point: the perimeter is no longer a physical or logical boundary, but the identity of the users and devices accessing the fabric. This roundtable will explore the practical transition from legacy "implicit trust" models to an Identity-Centric Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA).
Participants will engage in a collaborative dialogue on:
The shift from Layer 3 (Network) to Layer 4/5 (Application) connectivity to limit lateral movement. Managing "Machine Identities" in distributed rail environments where traditional MFA is physically or operationally difficult.
Balancing high-security access with the mission-critical need for rapid, remote maintenance during service disruptions.