IRMA Passive Monitoring and Risk Analysis for OT Networks

Achtwerk GmbH & Co. KG is a Bremen-based manufacturer of industrial security technology, run by managing directors Jens Bußjäger and Stefan Menge. Its product is IRMA, short for Industrie Risiko Management Automatisierung, an appliance that watches production networks and networked plant equipment for signs of attack. Customers are critical infrastructure operators and manufacturers: water and wastewater utilities, energy providers, pharmaceutical, chemical, and biotechnology plants, automotive and food production lines, steel processing, and wind energy operators. The company also sells consulting, training, and support alongside the hardware.

IRMA attaches to the production network passively, observing traffic without injecting packets or requiring changes to control systems, which matters where availability outranks everything else. From the moment it is connected it begins identifying connected systems and building an asset inventory from observed communication. It learns the normal communication patterns of Industrial Ethernet protocols including PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, and EtherCAT, then flags deviations, raises alerts in a management console, and retains recorded data for forensic analysis after an incident.

Achtwerk combines IRMA with securiCAD to turn monitoring output into continuous, automated risk measurement of production resilience rather than a one-off audit. The system supports compliance work against ISO 27001, the German IT security act, and DVGW W 1060 for utilities, and the company states that IRMA meets the mandatory requirements of the German BSI guidance on attack detection systems for operators of critical services. Achtwerk markets its German engineering and manufacturing directly, and holds the TeleTrusT quality seal.