Towards the neuromorphic Cyber-Twin: an architecture for cognitive defense in digital twin ecosystems
Nida Nasir, Hussam Al Hamadi · Frontiers in Big Data · 2025
Introduction: As cyber-physical systems become increasingly virtualized, digital twins have emerged as essential components for real-time monitoring, simulation, and control. However, their growing complexity and exposure to dynamic network environments make them vulnerable to sophisticated cyber threats. Traditional rule-based and machine-learning-based security models often fail to adapt in real time to evolving attack patterns, particularly in decentralized and resource-constrained settings. Methods: This study introduces the Neuromorphic Cyber-Twin (NCT), a brain-inspired architectural framework that integrates spiking neural networks (SNNs) and event-driven cognition to enhance adaptive cyber defense. The NCT leverages neuromorphic principles such as sparse coding, temporal encoding, and spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) to transform telemetry data from the digital-twin layer into spike-based sensory inputs. A layered cognitive architecture continuously monitors behavioral deviations, infers anomalies, and autonomously adapts its defensive responses in alignment with system dynamics. Results: Lightweight prototype simulations demonstrate the feasibility of NCT-based event-driven anomaly detection and adaptive defense. The results highlight advantages in low-latency detection, contextual awareness, and energy efficiency compared with conventional machine-learning models. Discussion: The NCT framework represents a biologically inspired paradigm for scalable, self-evolving cybersecurity in virtualized ecosystems. Potential applications include infrastructure monitoring, autonomous transportation, and industrial control systems. Comprehensive benchmarking and large-scale validation are identified as future research directions.