ABSTRACT
Digital twins are digital representations of physical entities, processes, or concepts. These digital twins have a wide range of applications in all spheres of day-to-day life. They are being used for error reduction, product and process simulations, testing hypotheses in the virtual environment, and predicting the outcomes. Data is directly fed into such digital replicas by sensors, cameras, and other equipment attached to physical entities which gives realistic models in the virtual environment. Digital twins in the healthcare domain can transform the present state of diagnosis, treatment, surgery, and medicine development. It also solves ethical and side-effect challenges of new treatment/surgery procedures and medicine development. Digital twin technology has tremendous potential to improve personalized healthcare. However, as this new field is rapidly expanding we must not overlook the security challenges associated with such models. In this chapter, we have explored the security aspect of digital twins in the healthcare sector. Although digital twins offer far more significant treatment processes, it is vulnerable to cyber-attacks and exploitations. As digital twins in the healthcare sector are linked with the treatment of actual patients, cyber attacks on such systems can have severe consequences on a person's health and could potentially threaten the lives of patients as well. We have not only identified the major cyber-attacks possible on digital twins but also have provided comprehensive prevention and mitigation strategies to avoid such attacks from happening. It is essential to keep these attacks and their countermeasures in mind while developing digital twin models in critical sectors such as healthcare.
