For organisations responsible for the UK’s critical infrastructure, from transport and utilities to energy, healthcare and government facilities, access control is no longer a standalone security function. It is a mission-critical system that must remain operational under cyber threat, physical disruption and rapid organisational change. The challenge for security leaders is not simply upgrading technology, but designing resilient access control architectures that can adapt without introducing new risk…
Designing for failure, not perfection
One of the defining best practices among many pros right now is a shift in mindset: assuming systems will fail, and planning accordingly. Power outages, network interruptions and system degradation must all be treated as expected scenarios rather than edge cases.
For critical infrastructure, this means prioritising fail-secure and fail-safe strategies appropriate to each environment. Physical controls, local decision-making at the edge, and offline credential verification all play a role in ensuring continuity when central systems are unavailable.
Redundancy is no longer limited to hardware. Leading organisations are building resilience into software platforms, data storage and identity management, ensuring that no single point of failure can compromise access control across an entire estate.
Cyber resilience and convergence risk
As access control becomes increasingly connected to IT networks, identity platforms and security operations centres, the cyber attack surface expands. In 2026, cyber resilience is inseparable from physical security resilience.
Best practice includes strong network segmentation, regular patching, encrypted credentials and rigorous vendor due diligence. Importantly, access control systems should be designed to degrade safely during cyber incidents, maintaining essential access for authorised personnel while preventing unauthorised entry.
For critical infrastructure operators, close collaboration between physical security, IT and cyber teams is now essential. Siloed ownership is one of the most common sources of systemic weakness.
Interoperability and future change
Critical infrastructure environments rarely stand still. Assets age, sites expand, ownership models change and regulatory expectations evolve. Access control systems that lock organisations into proprietary ecosystems can quickly become liabilities.
Resilience means interoperability. Open standards, well-documented APIs and vendor-agnostic architectures allow organisations to integrate new technologies, replace components and respond to emerging threats without wholesale system replacement.
This flexibility is particularly important when responding to regulatory change or integrating access control with broader resilience planning, including emergency response and business continuity frameworks.
Governance and accountability
Finally, resilience is as much about governance as technology. Clear ownership, defined escalation paths and regular testing are essential. Access control resilience should be assessed through realistic exercises, not just audits, that test how systems perform under stress.
For critical infrastructure operators, access control is no longer just about who gets through a door. In 2026, it is about ensuring continuity, safety and trust, whatever conditions the system is forced to operate under.
Are you searching for Access Control solutions for your organisation? The Total Security Summit can help!
