Beyond Static Security: A Context-Aware and Real-Time Dynamic Zero Trust Architecture for IIoT Access Control

In industrial environments, cyber threats are escalating at an unprecedented rate, yet many existing security solutions fail to account for both contextual factors and the criticality of different network segments. This challenge is especially pronounced in diverse, large-scale, and highly dynamic Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) environments. This article presents a dynamic zero trust access control (ZTA) model that adapts to real-time device status, network conditions, and user behavior to enforce context-aware, security-driven access decisions. At its core, our framework combines mathematical threat assessment with fuzzy logic-based state management (FSM) to continuously adjust trust levels and access permissions. We validated our approach through a Proof-of-Concept using a cluster of virtual machines (VMs) to simulate a controlled environment. This setup demonstrates the ZTA model’s effectiveness in small-scale networks and provides a foundation for testing various access scenarios and evaluating security policies.