A Digital Twin Based Industrial Automation and Control System Security Architecture

The digital twin is a rather new industrial control and automation systems concept. While the approach so far has gained interest mainly due to capabilities to make advanced simulations and optimizations, recently the possibilities for enhanced security have got attention within the research community. In this article, we discuss how a digital twin replication model and corresponding security architecture can be used to allow data sharing and control of security-critical processes. We identify design-driving security requirements for digital twin based data sharing and control. We show that the proposed state synchronization design meets the expected digital twin synchronization requirements and give a high-level design and evaluation of other security components of the architecture. We also make performance evaluations of a proof of concept for protected software upgrade using the proposed digital twin design. Our new security framework provides a foundation for future research work in this promising new area.