A critical review of digital twin confidentiality in a smart city

Abstract

Digital twin technology is used to enable businesses to create efficiencies by modelling their physical counterparts. Use cases include modelling a physical device through its lifecycle to perform predictive maintenance, product training, future product development, product performance enhancement, or using the digital twin to control its physical counterpart to perform tasks on IoT or other connected devices. A digital twin leads to less downtime on a physical device as all the modelling or testing is conducted in a virtual environment meaning the physical device can continue to perform the tasks required of it. The digital twin and its physical counterpart are linked and synchronised through heterogeneous network connections. This poses a cyber security question of whether there is a risk of using a digital twin within a smart city. This paper aims to critically examine the confidentiality requirements for a digital twin in a smart city by performing a critical analysis of current literature.