How to stop digital twins from being used against you
Digital twins are growing in leaps and bounds. These virtual representations of real-world devices are essentially digital proxies for enterprises -- delivering insights into an asset’s data, processes, operation states, and lifecycle. This is particularly beneficial in achieving better visibility in smart factories, or accurately predicting how devices might perform in connected healthcare.
In creating digital twin simulations and running models, however, there’s a problem. Doubling the data and doubling the digital assets of any company is, in effect, doubling the cybersecurity surface area. This increases the chances of exposure and sensitive company information falling into the wrong hands. Without proper safeguards, the risk is that digital twins can be turned against their owners. Amidst a landscape of record growth in the Internet of Things (IoT), let’s look at how to safely leverage the power of digital twins.
IoT and digital replicas: Powering up innovation with digital twins
The concept of digital twinning isn’t a new one. More than 40 years ago, NASA used an early form of digital twin technology to bring the Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth. By replicating the real-life conditions of the crippled spacecraft in its simulators, NASA was able to identify the right strategies and procedures for achieving a successful return in the damaged craft and deliver this critical information to Apollo’s flight crew.
Fast forward to today, and digital twin applications are now being deployed by organizations eager to harness the power of virtual prototyping to reinvent their operations. All made possible by the growing prevalence of IoT devices that pull real-time data collected from physical objects, which is used to create digital twins that deliver unprecedented visibility into assets and production processes.