Cybersecurity-oriented Digital Twins: A Double-Edged Sword or a Game Changer?

With the enormous potential of Digital Twin and the huge attack surface brought with it, researchers and cybersecurity experts have recently been suggesting ways of leveraging Digital Twins (DTs) to protect critical infrastructures. Cybersecurity-oriented Digital Twins (CSDTs) are an emerging Digital Twin technology that enhances the cybersecurity of cyberphysical systems (CPSs). It enables security experts to detect threats and formulate strategies to efficiently mitigate cyberattacks in a secure and regulated setting. By conducting simulations of different cyberattack scenarios in the DT, security experts can detect possible threats and vulnerabilities without affecting the live environment, while improving the security and robustness of the CPSs. However, this leads to different arguments between cybersecurity experts and DT professionals on whether this is possible, and to what extent it can be achieved. To provide an answer, this article analyzes the different arguments from both sides. First, the study investigates the significance of cybersecurity for DTs and analyzes arguments regarding cybersecurity vulnerabilities associated with systems that utilize DT technology. Next, it explores the security objectives of DTs and analyzes arguments on the potentials of DTs to reinforce cybersecurity in cyber-physical systems. These arguments also uncover some hidden potentials in CSDTs. Finally, we discuss our findings and provide conclusions on the questions raised. This work should serve as a pathway for addressing the questions pondering both parties with regards to the adoption of CSDTs for CPSs security.