Realising the vision of digital twins: Challenges in trustworthiness

The concept of Digital Twins was developed in the aviation and aeronautics industry in the early 2010s. The concept has grown in popularity and is now being considered in a variety of application domains. This growth, fuelled at least in part through the emergence of the Internet of Things, has gained significant momentum in the last two years, with academics and industry clamouring to consolidate ideas and drive the initiative forward. However, there remains a significant challenge in ensuring the security of these powerful and complex systems. This study examines the current progress in the development of Digital Twins in order to ascertain the key steps required to make the vision a reality. We pay particular attention to security challenges, and consider the issues of access to information and systems across the supply chain.