Digital Twins in Industry 4.0 – Opportunities and challenges related to Cyber Security

The technological advance present in Industry 4.0 (I4.0) has enabled the application of a wide range of technologies related to digitalization, connectivity, and automation. These technologies generate strong prospects of impact on the value chain, modernizing and optimizing distribution and production processes in manufacturing, as well as an exponential increase in the volume of data in cyberspace. In this context, Digital Twin (DT) is one of the advanced technologies embedded in the I4.0, which provides simulation capabilities to predict, optimize and estimate system states and configurations in a fully digital way in conjunction with cyber-physical systems. DT enables the replication of the real world in the virtual environment through the integration of technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, and Artificial Intelligence, generating data in real-time. As DT is at the center of a major paradigm shift in I4.0, the use of this technology enables opportunities to simulate cyber-attacks and defend scenarios without accessing the physical environment. However, these opportunities have some risks, as the connectivity implicit in DT between the physical and virtual environment increases the cyber-attacks surface. Cyber security becomes a critical concern to be addressed in projects that use and integrate DT. In this sense, this paper aims to analyze cyber security risks related to DT in the I4.0, and opportunities and challenges when using DT as a crucial component of a comprehensive security strategy, by providing means to simulate, test and monitor systems for vulnerabilities and threats. This study seeks to emphasize the need for best practices associated with the risks of cyber-attacks on virtual models, which can impact the physical systems they represent. This work makes a valuable academic contribution also by highlighting the importance of cyber security in the context of the use of DT in I4.0.