Considerations for Digital Twin Technology and Emerging Standards

Voas, Jeffrey; Mell, Peter; Piroumian, Vartan

doi:https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8356-draft

NISTIR 8356 (Draft)

Obsoleted on April 18, 2022.

Considerations for Digital Twin Technology and Emerging Standards

Date Published: April 2021
Comments Due: June 16, 2021 (public comment period is CLOSED)
Email Questions to: nistir-8356-comments@nist.gov

Planning Note (4/18/2022): This draft document has been RETIRED. NIST has discontinued additional development of this document, which is provided here in its entirety for historical purposes.

Author(s)

Jeffrey Voas (NIST), Peter Mell (NIST), Vartan Piroumian

Announcement

Digital twin technology is an emerging area of research and standardization. Because of this, there may be a lack of clarity as to what is new with digital twins and what promise this technology holds. This report provides a detailed definition of digital twins, the motivation and vision for their use, common low-level operations, usage scenarios, and example use cases. Focusing on technical considerations with the cybersecurity and trust of digital twins, this report analyzes novel cybersecurity challenges arising from the use of digital twin architectures and examines the traditional cybersecurity challenges that apply. Finally, this draft report evaluates trust issues—including the impact a lack of trust and standards can have on digital twin functionality and quality—and maps those evaluations to other NIST cybersecurity guidance.

NOTE: A call for patent claims is included on page iii of this draft. For additional information, see the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) Patent Policy--Inclusion of Patents in ITL Publications.

Abstract

Digital twin technology enables the creation of electronic representations of real-world entities and the viewing of the state of those entities. Its full vision will require standards that have not yet been developed. It is relatively new although it uses many existing foundational technologies and, in many cases, appears similar to existing modeling and simulation capabilities. This report attempts to provide clarity in understanding the concept and purpose of digital twins. It offers a new definition for a digital twin, and describes characteristics, features, functions, and expected operational uses. The report then discusses novel cybersecurity challenges presented by digital twin architectures. Lastly, it discusses traditional cybersecurity challenges as well as trust considerations in the context of existing NIST guidance and documents.

Keywords

computer cybersecurity; control; digital twins; instrumentation; real-time command; real-time monitoring; simulation; standards; testing; trust; use case scenarios

Control Families

None selected

Documentation

Publication:
NISTIR 8356 (Draft) (DOI)
Local Download

Supplemental Material:
None available

Document History:
04/16/21: NISTIR 8356 (Draft)

Topics

Security and Privacy
access control; assurance; maintenance; risk assessment

Technologies
personal computers; sensors

Applications
Internet of Things

Sectors
manufacturing