Marcel Rick-Cen

Marcel Rick-Cen is an Automation Engineer, OT/IIoT Security Consultant, industrial cybersecurity researcher, international conference speaker, and Founder & Lead Instructor of FOXGRID Industrial.

Holding a Master's degree in Automation Engineering and bringing over 20 years of experience in industrial environments, Marcel has worked directly with control systems in manufacturing, chemical processing, utilities, and critical infrastructure. His background spans automation engineering, industrial networking, troubleshooting, and securing PLCs, HMIs, industrial communication protocols, remote access solutions, and embedded devices.

By day, Marcel helps organizations assess and secure Operational Technology (OT) environments as an OT/IIoT Security Consultant. By night, he researches industrial hardware. His work includes firmware analysis, hardware hacking, industrial protocol security, embedded device security, vulnerability research, and responsible disclosure. His research has contributed to coordinated vulnerability disclosures affecting industrial products and remote access gateways, such as CVE-2024-57790, CVE-2024-45275, or CVE-2025-41688.

Marcel regularly shares his research with the global OT security community through conference talks, workshops, webinars, and technical publications. He has presented his findings at international events including CyberTek Tech Festival, OT Security Forum, and BSides, where he demonstrates practical techniques for assessing, attacking, and defending industrial systems.

Marcel founded FOXGRID Industrial after recognizing a gap in the OT security industry: engineers were expected to defend industrial systems without having realistic environments to learn, experiment, and build confidence. Too much training focused on theory and expensive certifications, while too little provided the practical experience needed to secure real industrial environments.

FOXGRID was built with the OT security community in mind. Its mission is simple: deliver affordable, high-impact, hands-on training that teaches engineers how industrial systems are attacked, assessed, and protected through realistic labs.

Marcel believes that effective OT security starts with understanding the engineering behind the systems being protected.

"You cannot defend industrial systems if you do not understand how they are attacked."

That philosophy forms the foundation of every FOXGRID training. Students learn by interacting with simulated OT environments, PLCs, industrial protocols, embedded devices, and real-world case studies covering industrial penetration testing, hardware hacking, threat assessment, and defensive engineering.

Whether you are an automation engineer, OT professional, penetration tester, or an IT security practitioner transitioning into Operational Technology, Marcel's goal is to help you build practical skills that can be applied immediately in real industrial environments.