Forward Networks' Kevin Kuhls: Digital Twin Could Help Agencies Validate Network Behavior

Kevin Kuhls, technical solutions architect at Forward Networks, said government agencies looking to safeguard information technology systems from cyberthreats and improve their zero trust architecture should have visibility into their networks and validate network behavior by using a digital twin.

“A digital twin is a behaviorally accurate software copy of an entire network and all the devices on it — including all possible traffic paths,” Kuhls wrote.

“It helps IT administrators find answers to difficult questions about individual devices or look at the whole system to find mathematically proven answers in seconds,” he added.

Kuhls called on agencies to visualize their zone-to-zone security policy to ensure that errors are prevented and connectivity is maintained despite network changes.

“Advanced digital twins exactly replicate the network and can be used to predict the impact of network changes before they are pushed live so that engineers can execute changes confidently,” he added.

Kuhls also discussed how a digital twin could help verify segmentation and enable security engineers to transition to a proactive posture.

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