Phoenix fabs, power plants and hospitals all hand out contractor access. Few can say who still has it.
The Valley's new fabs are filling with equipment vendors who need remote sessions into cleanroom tools. The utilities powering those fabs answer to NERC auditors. Health and education employ nearly three times as many people as manufacturing. All three ask us one question. Which of these accounts should still work?
- OT & ICS SecurityCybersecurity
- Privileged Access ManagementCybersecurity
- Identity Governance & AdministrationCybersecurity
- Secrets & Certificate LifecycleCybersecurity
- Industrial IoTInternet of Things
- Healthcare Provider PlatformsEnterprise Platforms
- Data Governance & AccessData & Analytics
For Phoenix-area organizations we handle identity and access for semiconductor manufacturers and their suppliers, privileged and vendor access for electric and water utilities, and identity governance and data work for health systems.
That covers remote access to fab tools and OT networks, evidence for NERC CIP access controls, and governed pipelines for clinical and claims data. Cohash runs this work remotely from Frisco, Texas, and our team travels in for workshops and launches.
Cohash has no office in Arizona. We serve Phoenix organizations remotely from our Frisco, Texas headquarters, a short flight away, and travel in for discovery sessions, design workshops and launch weeks.
- rules
- Arizona breach notification, A.R.S. §18-552NERC CIP reliability standardsHIPAA Security Rule, 45 CFR Part 164 Subpart C
What's specific about Phoenix
Each figure comes from a public source, linked on the card.
TSMC said on 4 March 2025 that it intends to add $100 billion to its US manufacturing investment, building on an ongoing $65 billion program in Phoenix, for an expected total of $165 billion. The plan adds three fabs, two advanced packaging facilities and an R&D team center.
source ↗ 02 30,499Greater Phoenix had 30,499 jobs in semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing in the first quarter of 2023, the Greater Phoenix Economic Council reports from Lightcast data. That count places the metro fourth among US metros for semiconductor manufacturing employment.
source ↗ 03 27%Palo Verde Generating Station, 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix, produces about 27% of the electric power generated in Arizona. APS operates the plant for its seven utility owners, according to an APS article from June 2025.
source ↗ 04 431,500Education and health services account for about 431,500 of the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler metro's roughly 2.48 million nonfarm jobs, and manufacturing for about 147,500, going by BLS data for September 2026 (preliminary).
source ↗Who we work with in Phoenix, and the rules they work under
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Semiconductor fabs and their suppliers
Tool vendors and OEM field engineers need remote sessions into equipment on the fab floor, usually through gateways each vendor prefers. Multi-year build-outs leave thousands of contractor badges and accounts that outlive the work. We broker and record vendor sessions into tool networks, tie every contractor account to a sponsor and an end date, and move MES and tool service accounts into a vault.
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Electric and water utilities
NERC CIP asks registered entities to show who holds electronic access to BES Cyber Systems, to revoke it on time, and to route interactive remote access through an intermediate system. We build the authorization, review and revocation workflow and the jump host design, so audit evidence comes out of the access system instead of a spreadsheet someone rebuilds every year.
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Hospitals and health plans
Traveling nurses, residents, students and contract coders join and leave faster than most HR systems record them. We connect identity governance to credentialing and staffing agency feeds so EHR access follows the assignment, and we put HIPAA audit controls on the pipelines that move clinical and claims data into analytics platforms.
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Arizona breach notification, A.R.S. §18-552 ↗
Affected individuals must be notified within 45 days after the entity determines a breach occurred. Above 1,000 people, the three nationwide credit bureaus, the Attorney General and the Arizona Department of Homeland Security director must be told too. AG penalties top out at $500,000 per breach or series of related breaches.
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NERC CIP reliability standards ↗
Apply to registered owners and operators of the bulk electric system, which includes the utilities that generate and deliver power across the Valley. The identity-heavy parts are CIP-004 on personnel access authorization and revocation and CIP-005 on electronic security perimeters and interactive remote access.
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HIPAA Security Rule, 45 CFR Part 164 Subpart C ↗
Covered entities and business associates handling electronic PHI need unique user identification, access controls, audit controls and person or entity authentication. For Phoenix health systems, that reaches every analytics copy of clinical data as well as the EHR itself.
Most requested in Phoenix
The services clients in Phoenix ask us for most.
01Our tool vendors want standing VPN access into the fab. Is there a better pattern?
Usually, yes. The vendor engineer requests a session to a named tool for a set window, a fab sponsor approves it, the session runs through a recorded gateway into the tool network, and access closes when the window ends. Most equipment makers can support this once their service contract spells it out.
02When does Arizona's 45-day breach clock start?
Under A.R.S. §18-552 it runs from the point you determine a breach occurred, not from the first alert. If law enforcement says notice would impede a criminal investigation, the 45 days start once they say it no longer will. Let counsel own the determination date, since it fixes your deadline.
03Can you produce NERC CIP access evidence for our audit?
For the access control requirements in CIP-004 and CIP-005, yes. That means authorization records, periodic access verification, revocation tracking and remote access through intermediate systems. We don't act as your auditor, and substation network design and physical security stay with your own teams.
04We're a supplier setting up next to a Phoenix fab. What should identity look like on day one?
Keep plant identities apart from corporate ones where your customer's security terms require it. Give contractors sponsored accounts with end dates from the first week. And pick an MFA method that works in gowns and gloves, such as badge taps or FIDO2 keys, wherever phones are restricted on the floor.
05Can traveling nurse access start and stop automatically?
It can when the staffing agency's assignment data reaches your identity governance tool. Access to the EHR then opens before the first shift with a unit-based role and closes when the contract ends, instead of depending on a manager remembering to file a ticket.
More cities in Arizona
d1515b9f - 01TSMC press release, US$165 billion US investment (4 March 2025)pr.tsmc.com ↗
- 02Greater Phoenix Economic Council, semiconductor ecosystemgpec.org ↗
- 03APS, Palo Verde Generating Station at forty (June 2025)aps.com ↗
- 04BLS, Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler economy at a glancebls.gov ↗
- 05A.R.S. §18-552 (Arizona Legislature)azleg.gov ↗
- 06NERC, CIP reliability standardsnerc.com ↗
- 07eCFR, 45 CFR Part 164 Subpart Cecfr.gov ↗
Tell us what you're running. We'll tell you what we'd do first.
A 30-minute working session with a senior engineer. No slides.
- The platform and the version you're on
- Where you need to get to, and by when
- What's custom: rules, plugins, integrations
- Any audit finding or deadline driving it