Cybersecurity in Transport Digital Twins

This workshop, hosted by Connected Places Catapult for the TransiT Digital Twinning for Transport Decarbonisation programme, will explore how cybersecurity risks evolve as transport systems become increasingly interconnected. It will consider both the technical challenges of detecting, preventing and responding to cyber‑attacks across complex systems, and the organisational and governance issues that arise when multiple stakeholders are responsible for the design, operation and assurance of connected transport infrastructure.

Critical infrastructures are becoming increasingly digitalised and interconnected, with underlying cyber-physical systems spanning across industries. At the same time, transport infrastructures across rail, ports, maritime operations and roads are undergoing rapid decarbonisation. For example, a smart, decarbonised port brings together cyber‑physical systems such as cranes, berthing, vessels and energy infrastructure, often operated by different organisations and supported by their own digital twins, creating multi‑layer dependencies and complex stakeholder interactions.

Digital twins play a critical role by supporting monitoring, simulation and operational decision‑making, including at the transport–energy interface. However, as they become more closely integrated with cyber-physical systems and with one another, the cyber-attack surface expands. This increases the risk of safety impacts, operational disruption and cascading failures across connected infrastructure, and raises important questions about how cybersecurity is designed, governed and managed at a system‑of‑systems level.

Workshop format and topics  

This in-person forum combines short scene setting presentations from the TransiT project team, led by Professor Dimitrios Pezaros and Dr Stefanos Evripidou from Glasgow University, with workshop discussion. The emphasis is on dialogue, shared learning and practical insight. It will cover:

• How cybersecurity challenges are changing as digital twins and physical transport systems become more interconnected.

• Managing risk and dependency at the transport–energy interface, where disruption can quickly spread between systems.

• How ready organisations and regulators are to address cybersecurity at an ecosystem level, rather than system by system · What operators, technology providers and public bodies need to consider when deploying digital twins securely and responsibly.

• Responding to cyber incidents in real-world operations, including disruption, recovery, and building more adaptive organisational and regulatory approaches.

Why attend?   

Test assumptions, share experience and explore how cybersecurity for connected transport systems can support protection, defence and adaptation over time.

This event is designed for a broad, cross‑sector audience, including transport and energy infrastructure operators, engineering consultancies and technology providers working with digital twins, cybersecurity and cyber‑physical systems specialists, policy makers and regulators, and researchers and practitioners involved in transport decarbonisation.

About TransiT  

TransiT is a national research hub using digital twins and associated technologies to identify the fastest, least-risky and lowest cost pathways to transport decarbonisation in the UK.

It is a collaboration of eight universities and almost 70 industry partners, jointly led by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow and funded by the UK Research and Innovation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the main funding body for engineering and physical sciences research in the UK, and supported by the UK government’s Department for Transport.