One aspect of the invention is a system for mobile device authentication. The system includes a public-facing server configured to interface with a mobile device. The system also includes a secure server configured to interface with the public-facing server and an authorization station. The authorization station includes processing circuitry configured to establish authorization limits for the mobile device and generate an authentication key associated with the authorization limits. The processing circuitry is further configured to provide the authentication key and an identifier of the mobile device to the secure server, and generate an authorization code including an encoded version of the authentication key and an address of the public-facing server. The processing circuitry is also configured to provide the authorization code to the mobile device to establish authentication for the mobile device to receive data from a control system network as constrained by the authorization limits.