YekCity at IT-Sicherheitstag NRW 2025 in Dortmund
The second public outing for YekCity, this time at the Kokerei Hansa: more than 500 attendees, mostly mid-sized companies from the region, and different questions from the ones we heard at it-sa.
3 December 2025, Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund. After the premiere at it-sa in October, we showed YekCity in public for the second time, this time at IT-Sicherheitstag NRW, ten minutes from our office.
More than 500 people attended, many of them mid-sized companies from North Rhine-Westphalia. The focus was different from it-sa: fewer international groups, more regional operators who are just starting with OT security.
What we showed
YekCity is our miniature test environment for smart city infrastructure, including a working power supply with generation, a control room and consumers, all on real industrial protocols.
Realistic OT attacks can be run on the platform. The effects are physically visible, the lights go out, and a SIEM logs every event in parallel while incident response is carried out to save the city.
The demo: a realistic attack on the power grid, with visible consequences.
The questions we heard
Compared with it-sa, the conversations started further back. Many companies are at the beginning:
"Does NIS2 apply to us?"
For many mid-sized municipal utilities, water suppliers and logistics companies in the region, NIS2 is new. The question came up dozens of times.
"Where do we even start?"
Many know they have to do something but are unsure where to begin. OT security looks complex, and it is. The beginning does not have to be. Most companies can get a long way with a few small steps.
"Can our people train on it?"
Here too the question was about practical training.
Regional, pragmatic, concrete
What stands out at IT-Sicherheitstag: companies here are pragmatic. No long theoretical discussions, but: what do I have to do, what does it cost, when do we start?
That is the right mentality for OT security. No buzzword bingo, concrete steps.
Want to see YekCity live?
IT-Sicherheitstag lasted one day. If you want to look at YekCity, YekTrain and YekCar without a crowd around you, we run live demos.
You see all three platforms, we demonstrate an attack of your choosing, and we discuss whether and how this would be useful for your team.