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Attacks run at machine speed, defence at human speed

Detection is well served today. Response, and above all recovery, is not.

An attack goes undetected for 287 days on average. Europe is short of 500,000 security professionals. Those are the familiar numbers, and they describe the time before the alarm.

The expensive time comes after it. The industry has become excellent at detecting attacks. Nobody has solved response, and above all recovery.

In a wiper attack there is nothing to decrypt

The only way back is restoration.

With ransomware there is at least a key. With a wiper there is none. Nothing to negotiate, nothing to decrypt, nobody to pay. The only way back is restoration.

Two cases, both publicly documented:

Both companies had detection. Both had backups. What was missing was the layer in between: a verified, ordered, automatic return to operation.

The plant engineer knows the rule. No product does

In OT the decisive knowledge sits in people's heads, not in systems.

In IT you can shut a compromised system down if you have to. In production you cannot. Which asset may be isolated, which must never be, and in what order things have to come back up so that nothing breaks: the plant engineer knows.

That knowledge is rarely documented and never machine-readable. Which is exactly why restoration stays manual work, under time pressure, with unclear backup quality.

“The attack was detected hours ago. But how do I get our production systems back online? That’s the part nobody helps me with.”

Illustrative system-administrator persona from our user research. Not a customer quote.

Regulation and downtime cost drive this at the same time

Two independent reasons to act now.

On top of that come the CRA, the EU Machinery Regulation and the AI Act, which apply from 2027. All of them demand the same thing: demonstrable transparency and demonstrable effectiveness.

The obligation comes from the legislator, the pressure from the balance sheet. Both point the same way.

Mycelia occupies the recovery layer

The autonomous, risk-based return of compromised IT and OT systems to a verifiably safe operating state.

The platform carries the incident autonomously from detection through to restoration. The IT team stays supervisor rather than fire brigade.

Three capabilities that no vendor bundles today:

1. Clean before fast. We only restore once the state is demonstrably clean.
2. Order, not chaos. Systems come back up in correct dependency order.
3. A network that heals itself. A clean node brings an affected neighbour back.

Every autonomous action stays inside normative guard rails (ISO 27001, IEC 62443, ISO 42001) and is auditable.

Clean before fast

Restoring quickly is worthless if you restore the infection with it.

The fastest way back is worthless if it brings the infection along. The most expensive surprise during a restoration is usually not the missing backup, it is the compromised one.

Mycelia only restores once the restoration state is demonstrably clean, and refuses infected backups.

Order, not chaos

Bringing one system up in the wrong order takes two others down with it.

Systems come back up in correct dependency order: from identity through core services to applications and endpoints.

“I brought the restored server back online, and it took down two other services because the network wasn’t ready.”

Illustrative network-administrator persona from our user research. Not a customer quote.

This is not an edge case. In the interviews we ran, restart orchestration was one of the two largest pain points, right beside backup integrity.

A network that heals itself

A clean node brings an affected neighbour back. Even when the centre is gone.

A clean node brings an affected neighbour back, autonomously, even when the link to the centre has failed.

This is the point where the name stops being a metaphor and starts describing the architecture. Anyone running a fleet of sites has exactly one problem after a major incident: too few people for too many plants. A network in which the healthy part recovers the sick part is what scales there.

Hence the name: heal one, heal all.

A closed, auditable decision cycle

Local agents at the plant, a platform above them, swappable models.

Mycelia has two parts. AI agents run at the plant, inside the respective network segment. Above them sits a platform that correlates between agents, keeps the audit trail and reports.

The decision engine combines language models with retrieval-augmented generation. The models are swappable, commercial or open source, local or cloud. No model lock-in.

Observe, understand, assess, decide, act, learn

A patent application on this method is under examination at the DPMA.

Six steps that run as a circle, not as a chain:

Observe → Understand → Assess → Decide → Act → Learn → back to Observe.

The last step is the one playbooks do not have. What was learned in one incident changes how the next one is assessed.

Every step runs inside normative, auditable guard rails. A patent application on this method is under examination at the DPMA.

Modular skills act where they are needed

From the PLC to the client, from Modbus to the hypervisor.

What the platform actually does:

• Isolate a segment
• VM snapshot and rollback
• Restart from a verified state
• C2 sinkhole
• Lock credentials, after approval
• Audit trail and NIS2 report

Depth covered: from PLC and Modbus via OPC UA and MES through to hypervisor, containers, firewall and client.

Not every one of these actions may go equally far. What runs fully autonomously and what needs an approval is not our decision, it is yours.

No data leaves the site

Local agents, local models, on-premises or hybrid operation.

AI agents run locally in the network segment, trained on two to four weeks of normal operation of that specific plant. They therefore know their plant’s normal behaviour, its permitted communication and its critical assets.

No data leaves the site. On-premises or hybrid operation.

For European critical infrastructure this point is not negotiable, and it is also why the models have to be swappable: if you sell data sovereignty, you cannot delegate it to a single vendor.

We integrate established building blocks

Backup vault, identity recovery and imaging are solved problems.

Backup vault, identity recovery and imaging are solved problems. Good products exist, and in most target environments they are already in place.

So we integrate established building blocks rather than rebuilding them. What is missing, and what we build, is the layer above: deciding which state is clean, in what order things come back, and how far the system may go on its own while doing it.

For integrators that means no rip and replace, but a layer on top of the estate you already look after at your customers.

Autonomy with demonstrable limits

Autonomy without demonstrable limits cannot be sold into critical infrastructure.

The most common objection to autonomous response is not “that doesn’t work”. It is “I will not allow that in my plant”. That is the right objection.

Our answer is not “trust us”. Our answer is a dial you operate yourself, and a record with which you can afterwards show what happened and why.

Law, standards and threat knowledge in one layer

A machine-readable layer brings law, standards and threat knowledge together.

Beneath the platform sits a machine-readable governance layer. It brings together:

• Law: NIS2, CRA, AI Act
• Standards: ISO 27001, IEC 62443, ISO 42001
• Threat knowledge: MITRE ATT&CK for IT and ICS

From these it derives a traceable autonomy ceiling for each action: from fully autonomous, through approval by a human, to explicitly never autonomous.

A firewall block runs fully autonomously. Handing a controller back to a running process never does.

That is useful twice over. Every autonomous decision can be justified to an auditor, and the compliance evidence is produced in operation rather than in a consulting project.

Because standards age, this layer is designed as a versioned, living artefact.

Four levels, set per measure

The level does not apply to the whole system. It applies to each individual measure.

The important part: the level does not apply to the whole system, it applies per measure. And you start cautiously and only move up a level once you have seen what the system does.

No pause when blocking. A pause when restoring.

Containment stops damage and is reversible. Typical level: HOTL or FULL.

Restoration intervenes in running operations. Here the responsible person wants to be asked. Typical level: HITL.

Everything else: what is not on the approval list is not executed. The system can only do what you have approved.

Every incident leaves a chain

Detected, decided, acted, taken effect, restored.

Every step timestamped, every decision with a reason. The chain cannot be altered after the fact, and it can be exported for the report to the competent authority.

The practical difference is one of timing. Normally compliance evidence is produced afterwards, in a consulting project, from reconstructed logs. Here it is produced in operation, as a by-product of acting.

To an auditor that is the difference between a claim and a record.

And who protects Mycelia?

A system allowed to intervene autonomously is a worthwhile target. That is not a footnote.

A system that may isolate segments and reset machines is worth more to an attacker than the machines themselves. Anyone who does not raise this has not thought about it.

• An approval list before every action. What is not approved is not possible. Not “is blocked”, but does not exist for the system.
• Your organisation sets the limits, not the vendor.
• It runs in your house. No cloud, no data egress.
• On uncertainty the system hands over to the human. That is the normal case, not the exception.
• Every action is reconstructable, including the system’s own.

What we measured, and what we have not

Lab results, not a customer pilot. We say where the boundary is.

Security marketing tends to make lab numbers sound like operational numbers. We do not do that here, because the people we want as customers know the difference.

What follows was measured in the lab. What is missing is stated alongside it.

2,261 autonomous tests on real hardware

In the Fraunhofer IPA industrial OT lab.

In all tested scenarios the detected threat was contained autonomously and without human intervention.

What this figure applies to. The 7.5 minutes is a mean time to recover for delimited single incidents in the lab, such as port scans and detected malware. It is not a fleet-recovery figure, and we do not extrapolate it into a speed-up multiplier.

Peer-reviewed publications, patent application under examination

Independently reviewed rather than self-asserted.

• Peer-reviewed at ECAI 2025 and as a paper in wt Werkstattstechnik online
• Patent application at the DPMA on the autonomous decision cycle, under examination
• Three signed letters of intent from critical infrastructure, Industry 4.0 and IT engineering

We do not name the three partners publicly while we do not have their clearance to do so.

Validated demonstrator at TRL 3

The next step is a pilot-tested functional prototype at TRL 5.

A Fraunhofer IPA spin-off project, currently in the AHEAD Deeptech Incubator.

What is missing is operation at a pilot customer. That is what we are looking for partners for.

If you run a converged IT/OT environment and want to know how long your production would really stand still after a wiper attack, that is the point where a conversation is worth something to both sides.

Market and business model

No established product returns compromised IT and OT systems autonomously and demonstrably in line with standards.

No established product returns compromised IT and OT systems autonomously, and demonstrably in line with standards, to a safe target state. That is precisely the layer Mycelia occupies.

Five things make it defensible:

• Recovery autonomy: restoration as a product function, not rework after the alarm
• Standards-based decision logic: every action traceable to ISO and IEC controls
• OT-native: response down to the control level, with explicit approval
• Data sovereignty: local models, the data stays in the plant
• Scientifically validated: lab validation, peer-reviewed publication, patent application under examination

Regulated industrial companies with converged IT/OT

The personas are CISOs and system and network administrators.

Four segments:

• Manufacturing and automotive
• Pharma and chemicals
• Energy and utilities
• Public administration and critical-infrastructure IT

The personas are CISOs and system and network administrators.

“We detected the attack in minutes. But it took us four days to recover. That’s what cost millions.”

Illustrative CISO persona from our user research. Not a customer quote.

Market potential 2030

Our own estimate, based on market analyses.

The window is opened by regulation, not by technology. NIS2 is in force; the CRA and the AI Act apply from 2027. Those who have to comply are looking now.

Subscription with feature-based scaling

A three-tier subscription. Autonomous recovery is the core.

Licensed autonomous response and recovery modules, integrated into existing plants. A subscription with feature-based scaling in three tiers: autonomous recovery is the core, compliance and governance modules are the value-determining tiers. That carries from the upper Mittelstand to the large enterprise.

We scale through reusable decision logic rather than through data, with no lock-in on the AI model.

Go-to-market in three stages: first three to five lighthouse pilots through the Fraunhofer network, then scaling through OT integrators and MSSPs, and long term insurers and certification as the moat.

What partners bring and what we deliver

Entry is always through a joint pilot customer.

Partners bring: customer access, sector and integration expertise, and sales.

Mycelia delivers: technology and IP, scientific validation, presales, training and level-3 support.

Entry is always through a joint pilot customer, proof of value, then a framework agreement.

We deliberately do not rebuild the layers you already look after at your customers. Backup, identity recovery and imaging are integrated. See Integrate, don’t rebuild.

Audit, OT security and AI architecture in one team

The combination is rare, and it is why we can build this layer.

Standards-based decision logic can only be built by people who know both sides: the audit practice that decides what is demonstrable, and the systems architecture that decides what is automatable.

This team came together on exactly that seam.

The founders

Two founders, a lead developer, a legal mentor.

Max Geyer, CEO, is responsible for cyber defence and compliance: around ten years of professional experience, five of them as a certified auditor, Fraunhofer IPA, PhD candidate at the University of Stuttgart. Deep expertise in ISO 27001, IEC 62443 and ISO 42001 and in the auditable implementation of regulatory requirements, plus entrepreneurial practice as an independent auditor.

Jannik Schwab, CTO, is responsible for the platform and autonomous systems design: nine years developing AI-based software and systems architectures, Fraunhofer IPA, plus industry experience and experience in building companies.

Florian Strohm, co-founder and lead developer: doctorate in computer science from the University of Stuttgart, Fraunhofer IPA, focused on machine learning and human-AI interaction, complemented by industry experience in software development.

A legal mentor supports contract, IP and strategy questions.

Where we come from

The measurements come from the institute's industrial OT lab.

Mycelia is a Fraunhofer IPA spin-off project and is currently in the AHEAD Deeptech Incubator.

For this layer that is more than a line of provenance. Autonomous response in a production plant cannot be validated at a desk. The 2,261 tests ran in the institute’s industrial OT lab, on real hardware.

One role is still missing

We have the engineering and the standards. What we lack is the commercial side.

We say this openly, because it is obvious anyway: nobody on this team does sales for a living. For a product with a six-to-eighteen-month sales cycle into regulated industry, that is the biggest gap we have.

Wanted: a co-founding commercial role. Business model, first customers, investor conversations. Ideally with experience selling technically demanding products into industry or the public sector.

Also of interest: engineers who want to work on autonomous systems and OT protocols.

Honest about the stage: we are pre-incorporation, at the institute, with a funding path. That is a different entry than joining a funded company, with different risk and different room to shape things.

The market sounds like war. We build the opposite

Our name does not sell an enemy. It stands for life.

Threat, attack, kill chain. Dark pages, red alerts, hooded figures. Cyber security’s visual language has been selling fear for twenty years, and selling it well.

We build the opposite: systems that heal themselves. A brand that sells fear cannot carry a product whose entire point is composure.

That is why this page is light.

Mycelia: three layers, one word

A single fungal network, kilometres across, invisible underground, keeping an entire forest alive.

First, the fungus. The largest living organism on earth is a fungus: a single fungal network, kilometres across, thousands of years old, invisible underground, keeping an entire forest alive. Mycelia is the mycelium itself, the network beneath the forest.

Second, one helps all. The trees are connected through that network. What happens to one does not stay with it.

Third, network and life. Mycel and Zelle, the German for cell, share the same letters: cel. A living network of living cells.

In the architecture that means something concrete: a clean node brings an affected neighbour back. See A network that heals itself.

Heal one, heal all.

Prevention fails. Recovery doesn't

The question is no longer whether a system gets compromised, but how it behaves when it does.

Attacks happen, mistakes happen, the unexpected happens. Quality shows in how a system deals with it.

Prevention-first security no longer scales. In complex systems resilience matters more than perfection. The question is no longer whether a system gets compromised, but how it behaves when it does.

Attacks happen. Downtime is optional.

Cut it. It grows back.

Recovery is not an afterthought. It is a design principle.

BUILT TO RECOVER.

Looking for a pilot site and partners

The entry point is deliberately small: a joint workshop on your real recovery pain points.

We are looking for partners who will walk the road from a pilot site to industrial readiness with us: pilot users with converged IT/OT, CISO contacts in regulated industry, and investors with industrial cyber experience.

The entry point is deliberately small: a joint workshop on your real recovery pain points, then a letter of intent and a trial at one plant.

jannik.schwab@mycelia-security.de

Start a conversation

If you want to know, let's talk about it.

The entry point is a workshop, not a sales pitch. We walk through where your restoration gets stuck today, and you get to see whether we understand the problem.

Start a conversation

Or directly to jannik.schwab@mycelia-security.de

Discuss the partner model

For OT integrators and MSSPs. Entry through a joint pilot customer.

You bring customer access, sector and integration expertise. We bring technology, IP, validation, presales, training and level-3 support.

Discuss the partner model

Or directly to jannik.schwab@mycelia-security.de

Contact for investors

For investors with experience in industrial cyber or OT.

We talk to investors who know industrial cyber or OT. Specific funding figures are something we discuss in conversation, not on this page.

Get in touch

Or directly to jannik.schwab@mycelia-security.de

Co-found

Above all for the commercial role we are missing.

No form, no application process. Write and tell us what interests you about this.

Write an email

Or directly to jannik.schwab@mycelia-security.de

Legal notice

Information pursuant to § 5 DDG (German Digital Services Act).

Service provider

Jannik Schwab
Pfaffenweg 5b
70180 Stuttgart
Germany

Contact

Email: jannik.schwab@mycelia-security.de

Responsible for content

Jannik Schwab
Pfaffenweg 5b
70180 Stuttgart

Note on the relationship with Fraunhofer IPA

Mycelia is a spin-off project of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA. This website is a private offering by the founders and is not an offering of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.

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Controller

Jannik Schwab
Pfaffenweg 5b
70180 Stuttgart
Germany

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Accessibility statement

This site is designed as a spatial map. That is why it also exists as a linear document.

Target status

We aim for conformance with WCAG 2.1 level AA and EN 301 549.

What we have implemented

• The entire site is fully readable without JavaScript. Every node is its own document with complete text.
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Known limitations

• The map view relies on space and movement. The complete, equivalent alternative is the linear view.
• What has been checked so far is the accessibility tree, not how it sounds. Roles, names, states, focus handling and order were tested against the assurances above and hold: the skip link is the first tab stop, the map is a nested list of 39 real links in editorial order, the open node reports itself as the current page, focus moves to the heading after navigating and the page change is announced, the overview map is a single tab stop when closed and returns focus after Escape, and the search field walks its results as a combobox. The manual check with an actual screen reader is still outstanding.

Feedback

If you notice a barrier, please write to us: jannik.schwab@mycelia-security.de