Digital Twin and Cybersecurity

Introduction: This research reviews the use of the twin concept in improving security measures.Time and the ability to gain situational awareness are both crucial to the effectiveness of threat responses.Digital twins can enhance these attributes which in turn improves readiness and resilience in response capabilities within critical infrastructure sectors where threats are on the rise.Cybersecurity has never been more dynamic and evolving as organizations struggle with ever-more sophisticated attacks.Traditional cybersecurity solutions that are reactive and inert are unable to keep up with the evolution of such attacks.Digital twin, a concept for real-time virtual copies of physical assets, was the answer.Digital twins can be used to monitor and simulate systems real-time in order to see where they are vulnerable and help in active threat prevention.This work argues that a move to include digital twin technology in cybersecurity programs could change the way organizations prepare, detect and respond to cyberattacks.Methodology: To see how digital twins can be useful for cybersecurity, a literature review was first undertaken that gathered research on the use of digital twins in industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, and smart grids.This report revealed research gaps in the use of digital twins in cybersecurity in particular.Continuing on this work, a digital twin prototype was created for a smart grid system, selected because it is critical infrastructure and cyber-evident.This prototype was useful for prototyping cyber-attacks like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, ransomware, and data breaches.Measurements like detection accuracy, response time, and system performance were tracked and evaluated to test the digital twin's performance in real world.