Toward Human Digital Twins for Cybersecurity Simulations on the Metaverse: Ontological and Network Science Approach

BACKGROUND: Cyber defense is reactive and slow. On average, the time-to-remedy is hundreds of times larger than the time-to-compromise. In response, Human Digital Twins (HDTs) offer the capability of running massive simulations across multiple domains on the Metaverse. Simulated results may predict adversaries' behaviors and tactics, leading to more proactive cyber defense strategies. However, current HDTs’ cognitive architectures are underdeveloped for such use. OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to make a case for extending the current digital cognitive architectures as the first step toward more robust HDTs that are suitable for realistic Metaverse cybersecurity simulations. METHODS: This study formally documented 108 psychology constructs and thousands of related paths based on 20 time-tested psychology theories, all of which were packaged as Cybonto—a novel ontology. Then, this study applied 20 network science centrality algorithms in ranking the Cybonto psychology constructs by their influences. RESULTS: Out of 108 psychology constructs, the top 10 are Behavior, Arousal, Goals, Perception, Self-efficacy, Circumstances, Evaluating, Behavior-Controllability, Knowledge, and Intentional Modality. In this list, only Behaviors, Goals, Perception, Evaluating, and Knowledge are parts of existing digital cognitive architectures. Notably, some of the constructs are not explicitly implemented. Early usability tests demonstrate that Cybonto can also be useful for immediate uses such as manual analysis of hackers’ behaviors and automatic analysis of behavioral cybersecurity knowledge texts. CONCLUSIONS: The results call for specific extensions of current digital cognitive architectures such as explicitly implementing more refined structures of Long-term Memory and Perception, placing a stronger focus on noncognitive yet influential constructs such as Arousal, and creating new capabilities for simulating, reasoning about, and selecting circumstances.