Digital Twin in Industry: A Cybersecurity Blind Spot? Digital Twins are transforming industry by creating real-time virtual replicas of physical systems for monitoring and optimization. However, this innovation also introduces a hidden cybersecurity blind spot where compromised digital models could impact real-world operations.

Abstract

The Digital Twin is one of the most transformative technologies for industries to implement in the process of digital transformation and is especially impacting the manufacturing, energy and logistics industries. A digital twin is a virtual model of a physical object like a manufacturing facility, supply chain, aircraft engine or power grid that exists in real time. These systems incorporate sensors, Internet things, cloud computing, and AI-powered investigation to replicate the genuine world procedures in a virtual space.

Digital twins have a huge impact on operational efficiencies, predictive maintenance and cost optimization, but they also present a new and largely unrecognized cyber security threat. Manipulated, corrupted, or compromised digital twins can have consequences that go beyond cyberspace to the physical infrastructure. This begs an important question: Is digital twin an industry cybersecurity dark spot?