When people talk about digital twins, they often picture a virtual representation of a physical thing such as an airplane, allowing simulation of changes to design and measuring against different variables to see the impact of those changes. This leads to innovative designs, because the risk of R&D is greatly reduced when able to test hypotheses in the safe space of the virtual world.
The beneficial impact of digital twins doesn’t endwith physical assets, however.The same principles can be applied to whole systems, be it the communications system used on board that plane or the whole ecosystem required to get the plane safely off the ground, with the right passengers, the right baggage, the right fuel and the right flight plan.
Whether a sprawling international hub with thousands of flights per day or a smaller airport like the one we visited in Staverton, digital twins can enable rapid optimisation and growth and great reductions in waste and errors. So, what are three pivotal ways in which digital twins can make a difference?
A Digital Twin — a virtual replica of a physical asset or a system capable of revolutionising how regional airports manage their resources, optimise operations and plan for the future. Gloucestershire Airport, servicing private aircraft, helicopters and even emergency landings, is the perfect example of where this innovation could have a real, immediate impact.
1. Fuel Management: beyond just “how much?”
Fuel is the lifeblood of an airport’s operations, and in smaller airports, every litre counts. By deploying sensors on refuelling tanks and storage facilities, airports can continuously monitor both the quantity and quality of fuel in real time. Moisture ratings, contaminant detection and temperature controls would ensure fuel meets strict aviation standards, minimising the risk of supply issues or quality failures.
Using historical demand patterns combined with predictive analytics, adigital twin could forecast fuel usage trends, allowing smarter resupply scheduling. Not only would this optimise operational costs, but it could also reduce the carbon footprint associated with frequent, unnecessary fuel deliveries.
2. Full operational visibility:from touchdown to take-off
Imagine a live, data-driven view of the entire airport, from a helicopter’s landing and its passengers’ disembarkation to baggage handling efficiency. A digital twin could integrate sensor data, RFID tracking, business systems and operational logs to create a single pane of glass for airport managers.
Delays in passenger flow? The system would spot them instantly. Baggage bottlenecks? Highlighted before they become a passenger satisfaction issue. Even emergency landings could be better coordinated with real-time scenario simulations.
3. Learning from the past and testing the future
One of the most powerful advantages of a digital twin is its ability to simulate “what if” scenarios without touching the real-world setup.
Historical analysis: Why did baggage handling slow down during the last peak season? Where could staffing have been more efficient?
Virtual experimentation: What happens if a new refuelling procedure is trialled? What’s the impact of changing the location of helicopter landing pads?
By creating a safe environment to design and test improvements virtually, smaller airports could avoid costly, disruptive errors and implement proven optimisations with confidence.
How CACI can help you reap the benefits of digital twins
Digital twins aren’t reserved for the world’s largest airports or organisations. They offer just as much— if not more— value to smaller, agile organisations where every efficiency gain translates to a significant operational advantage.
The future of aviation infrastructure isn’t just about scaling up. It’s about scaling smart,starting with embracing the power of a digital twin.
Discover more about Mood’s cutting-edge advancements in digital twins with our latest video, created in collaboration with CyNam. We delve into real-world applications of digital twins, offering insights into how these virtual replicas can address challenges and drive innovation.
The world of intelligence gathering has evolved dramatically. While infiltrating clandestine meetings in darkened rooms still has its place, today, a wealth of informationresides online waiting to be unearthed and analysed. This blog post explores how investigators can leverage Clear and Dark Web data holistically together to gain critical insights and solve complex cases.
A Familiar Landscape: Clear Web Investigations
The Clear Web, the internet known to most that’s neatly indexed by standard search engines, is a treasure trove of publicly available, readily accessible information. Easy for investigators to search through, the Clear Web is a great starting point for building a comprehensive picture of a subject or situation for several critical intelligence investigation use cases:
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) collects and analyses information from search engines, social media platforms, news sites, public records, and company websites to identify assets and connections between individuals, track movements, and establish timelines.
Social Media Analysis unlocks goldmines of personal information using social profiles, posts, photos, and connections to understand subjects’ interests, relationships, activities, and sentiment and help identify potential threats, track individuals, and understand group dynamics.
Media Monitoring helps track public sentiment and potential threats by looking at news articles, blog posts, and forum discussions to provide context and insights into events, individuals, organisations and cultural trends.
Background Checks to verify identities, uncover criminal histories, and identify financial connections using public records such as court records, property records, and business registrations for risk assessment and due diligence.
The Deep and Dark Web: the hidden depths of the Internet
This Clear Web, however, represents a tiny fraction of the Internet’s information. Over 95% of this content resides below the surface of the Clear Web, in what’s known as the Deep Web. At its most basic, anything behind a subscription, encryption or password, counts within this.
For investigators needing deeper insights for more complex investigations, a sub-section of the Deep Web, the Dark Web, is a far more valuable, albeit challenging, information landscape.
The Dark Web is a hidden part of the internet, accessible only via specialised browsers, often TOR (The Onion Router) browser, a modified, open-source version of Firefox. TOR anonymises web traffic using an encryption technique originally developed by the US Navy. It hides IP addresses and browsing activity by routing traffic through multiple nodes. This layered encryption ensures strong anonymity, protecting user privacy even if individual nodes are compromised.
Most people perceive the Dark Web to be a place synonymous with illicit activities. And it’s true that illegal marketplaces and forums for drugs, weapons, stolen data, illegal pornography, counterfeits, Malware and other criminal activities exist there –c.57% of its activities according to 2020 research.
However, the Dark Web also serves as a platform for secure communication and legal cryptocurrency trading, attracting whistleblowers, activists, and individuals seeking privacy, including those living under regimes with limited freedom of speech. The BBC, CIA and Facebook all have TOR sites on the Dark Web for this reason. Ultimately, the Dark Web’s anonymity, while exploited by criminals, makes it a valuable source of intelligence.
A complex shifting world: the challenge of Dark Web Investigations
To effectively use the Dark Web for intelligence, investigators need specialised tools, in-depth knowledge, refined techniques, and a keen awareness of ethical implications for these critical use cases.
Tracking Criminal Activity by monitoring illegal marketplaces to identify sellers, buyers, and track the flow of illegal goods. This is where effective Dark Web analysis tools are vital to help deanonymise individuals and generate intelligence to disrupt criminal networks.
Identifying Cyber Threats: Cybercriminals often discuss vulnerabilities and sell stolen data on Dark Web forums. Monitoring and carefully engaging in these forums can help investigators identify threats and prevent attacks.
Investigating Financial Crimes: Cryptocurrency transactions used in Dark Web marketplaces for legal and illegal trading – the most famous Bitcoin – can be difficult to trace. Investigators use specialised tools and techniques for blockchain data analysis to identify criminal individuals.
Uncovering Insider Threats: The Dark Web’s anonymity can embolden individuals to leak sensitive information. Investigators can monitor forums for leaked data and identify potential insider threats within organisations.
Sourcing Human Intelligence (HUMINT): While challenging, Intelligence investigators can establish contact with individuals who possess valuable information. Particularly useful for organised crime, terrorism, or other sensitive investigations.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations in Clear and Dark Web investigations
The Clear and Dark Web present both unique and shared investigation challenges requiring specialised skills, tools, and strategies:
Sheer volume of data on the Web makes it difficult to pinpoint relevant information.
Encryption of communications and transactions further complicates access to crucial evidence.
Crimes often span multiple jurisdictions, requiring national and international cooperation and collaboration.
Data fragmentation across various platforms and databases also requires extensive effort to piece together information.
Privacy laws and regulations add more complexity to obtaining data. Investigators must always operate within the bounds of the law, ensuring any intelligence collected can be used as admissible evidence in court.
The Dark Web has its own particular challenges:
Anonymity is thesingle most challenging factor which prevents linkages to real-world identities
Heavy encryption of transactions and communications further hinder interception and decoding of information, requiring specialist tool proficiency, cryptography and blockchain capabilities.
Human Analysis: while the sheer volume of Dark Web data necessitates using sophisticated tools to cut through the noise, careful analysis is vital to avoid false attributions.
Trends in the Evolving Investigation Landscape
The world of online intelligence gathering is constantly evolving, requiring investigators to adapt their techniques accordingly:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning technologies are both a challenge and opportunity to investigators. AI deepfake imagery, voice and video, AI-generated illicit content, cryptocurrency laundering and AI-automated cyberattacks, phishing and chatbots will require investigators to constantly adapt their techniques.
Big Data Analytics tools can process and analyse the exponentially growing large volumes of data, revealing hidden connections and potential insights about complex criminal networks or individuals’ motivations that would be impossible to detect manually.
Blockchain Analysis will be an even more critical skill for investigators given the growth of new cryptocurrencies like Monero (XMR) with highly advanced cryptographic techniques that mask transactions and dynamically change IP addresses, even as Bitcoin can now be ‘cracked’. With central banks also integrating cryptocurrency into operations, it’s clear its continuing adoption and acceptance for both legitimate and illicit transactions will remain a focus.
Decentralised Web (Web3), while slower to develop than predicted, just like AI presents both opportunities and challenges for investigators. Web3’s decentralisation, blockchain technology, and token-based economics, will require new tools and techniques to effectively investigate its platforms.
Focus on Privacy and Data Protection is an increasing challenge for investigators. New regulation like the UK’s incoming Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, Brazil’s General Personal Data Protection Act (LGPD) and India’s Personal Data Protection Bill mean investigators must be mindful of the latest legal and ethical frameworks they are operating under. Investigators must always adhere to such regulation and obtain proper warrants and authorisations before accessing sensitive information.
The Integrated Approach: Combining Clear Web and Dark Web Intelligence
The Clear Web and the Dark Web are both valuable sources of intelligence for investigators. The Clear Web offers a wealth of publicly available information, the Dark Web provides access to hidden data and insights that can be crucial to solve complex cases. By effectively combining intelligence from both realms and adapting to the increasingly complex technological landscape, investigators can gain a significant advantage in their pursuit of truth and justice.
This integrated Clear, Deep and Dark Web approach provides investigators with a broader, more nuanced understanding, yet the sheer volume, fragmentation and type of data means it’s a significant technical and practical challenge to navigate. It typically requires using multiple specialist tools and robust investigator skills, set against the dynamic nature of the Web itself.
DarkBlue: a user-friendly platform for integrated Web intelligence investigations
This fundamental challenge of scale, scope and complexity was the reason behind CACI developing our DarkBlue Intelligence suite.
DarkBlue offers investigators a user-friendly, single OSINT platform to undertake holistic, complex investigations on the Clear, Deep and Dark Web efficiently, ethically and safely.
DarkBlue leverages the intelligence that CACI has been scraping from across the Web including Tor, I2P, ZeroNet, OpenBazaar and Freenet for over 10 years, amassing billion of pages of data and capturing sites long since deleted.
Included in the suite is DarkPursuit tool, which provides the user with a safe, anonymous browsing environment that obfuscates technical details that could be used for attribution or tracking. DarkPursuit integrates multiple specialist tools and allows investigators to seamlessly transition between search findings, multiple live environments and analysis.
DarkPursuit’s new CluesAI feature helps investigators deanonymise individuals and entities on the Dark Web more efficiently, helping tackle its biggest – and growing – intelligence investigation challenge.
CluesAI automatically gathers potentially identifying information like email addresses, cryptocurrency wallet details, and port scans from the Dark Web. It cross-references this information against DarkBlue’s extensive database and uses generative AI to identify connections and patterns. It then generates reports that summarise and highlight potentially deanonymising information, providing investigators with actionable leads in one click.
As the Web in all its forms grows in complexity and size – particularly with the growth of Web3 and cryptocurrency, it’s vital that investigators can stay ahead of emerging threats to help protect national security and combat criminal activity.
DarkBlue – and CACI’s OSINT as a Service offering – provides investigators with the critical tools and support from experienced intelligence experts to support your critical mission.
Contact us today to discuss how we can supercharge your investigations.
In our previous blog in this series, we uncovered the key characteristics of digital twins, their advantages and challenges and what organisations that adopt a digital twin can expect to gain from it. Today, we’ll examine Mood’s unique approach to constructing digital twins and how it can support organisations.
What is Mood and what approach does it take with digital twins?
Mood’s platform addresses the challenges of creating digital twins by offering a highly flexible and customisable solution that caters to specific organisational domains. Mood’s approach is centred on three key pillars:
Agility and flexibility
Mood enables the creation of agile digital twins that can be rapidly adapted to an organisation’s unique requirements. Whether it’s a specific industry, business model or operational process, Mood’s platform provides the tools needed to build a digital twin that accurately represents the organisation’s domain in the virtual world.
Integrated data and consistency
Mood’s platform integrates data from multiple sources, ensuring that the digital twin is truly reflective of the real-world state. This integration is key to maintaining clarity and consistency across the organisation, allowing for more accurate analysis and decision-making.
Rapid deployment and optimisation
Mood offers services that accelerate the deployment of digital twins, allowing organisations to start benefiting from their virtual models in a shorter timeframe. Its continuous monitoring and real-time analysis capabilities also enable rapid optimisation of operations, providing a significant competitive advantage.
Common questions about digital twins
1. How is a digital twin different from a simulation or a 3D model?
While simulations and 3D models are static representations often used for specific scenarios or time points, a digital twin is a living, dynamic model that continuously updates based on real-time data. Digital twins provide a more comprehensive and accurate view of the current state of a system and allow for ongoing monitoring, predictive analysis and decision-making, far beyond what static models or simulations offer.
2. Do digital twins require IoT (Internet of Things) technology?
While IoT technology is a common and effective way to gather real-time data for digital twins, it is not strictly required. Digital twins can also be built using other data sources, such as enterprise systems, manual inputs and historical data. However, IoT devices enhance the digital twin’s ability to reflect real-time changes where physical assets are critical, making them particularly valuable in dynamic environments.
3. Are digital twins only applicable to manufacturing and physical assets?
No, digital twins are not limited to manufacturing or physical assets. They can be applied across a range of industries and domains, including healthcare (e.g., patient monitoring), urban planning (e.g., smart cities), logistics (e.g., supply chain management) and even service-oriented sectors. Any process or system that can benefit from real-time data integration and analysis can potentially utilise a digital twin.
4.How difficult is it to create and maintain a digital twin?
The difficulty of creating and maintaining a digital twin depends on the complexity of the system being modelled, the availability and quality of data and the technology stack used. While some digital twins can be complex and resource-intensive to develop, there are also more straightforward and scalable solutions available. With Mood, your digital twin can start small, returning instant value and iteratively scaled based on priority. Maintaining a digital twin requires ongoing data integration, model updates and regular performance evaluations to ensure it remains accurate and relevant, so a single platform acting as the lynchpin can be hugely beneficial.
How Mood can help
Mood’s platform and professional services offer a unique solution by providing the flexibility, integration and agility needed to develop and maintain effective digital twins. By leveraging Mood’s capabilities, organisations can achieve a new level of operational clarity and efficiency, ensuring they remain resilient and competitive in the face of ongoing challenges.
For organisations lacking the confidence to build their own digital twin from scratch, our consultants work directly with our customers to help them, ensuring they have the skills they need moving forward. Contact Mood today to begin your journey towards an agile, data-driven future.
Since October 2024, CACI has featured on G-Cloud 14 – the framework run by the Crown Commercial Service which allows public sector organisation to find cloud-based computing services across a number of ‘Lots’ including cloud hosting, cloud software and cloud support. This framework is run as an “online catalogue” found on the Crown Commercial Service website.
We secured over 120* service offerings across all three Lots, meaning that public sector buyers can easily chose to use us over the next 15 months.
What’s more, for the first time, CACI were also successful in securing a place on the additional 4th lot of the G Cloud framework. This Lot is designed for public sector buyers who have more complex cloud support requirements. Our capabilities across Lot 4 include:
Cloud migration planning
Set up and migration
Security services
Quality assurance and performance testing
Training
Ongoing support
We were one of only 43 suppliers who successfully secured a place on Lot 4 and are included next to the likes of Deloitte, Ernst & Young & Capgemini. Opportunities through this Lot will be procured by the customer via a further competition exercise.
In our previous blog in this series, we examined a real-life example of where a digital twin helped drive outcomes for an organisation and the overarching importance of digital twins amidst the ever-changing technological landscape. Today, we’ll explore the characteristics comprising digital twins, including their advantages, challenges and what organisations can expect from them.
What are the key characteristics of a digital twin?
A digital twin, in its most basic form, is a virtual representation of a physical entity or group of entities, such as the machines and their systems on a manufacturing shop floor. However, in the context of organisations, digital twins go beyond simply replicating physical assets. They represent the entire organisational structure, including processes, workflows, systems and even human behaviours. Some of the key characteristics of a digital twin include:
Real-time data integration (H3)
Dynamic and continuous synchronisation: A digital twin constantly updates its virtual model based on data from its physical counterpart or the processes it represents. This real-time integration allows the twin to accurately reflect the current state of the system, asset or organisation it models.
Data sources: It incorporates data from various sources, including IoT sensors, enterprise systems, operational data stores and external data feeds, ensuring a comprehensive and up-to-date virtual representation.
High fidelity and accuracy
Detailed and precise representation: A digital twin provides a high-fidelity model that captures the complexities and nuances of its subject. This includes both physical characteristics (e.g. dimensions and materials) and operational parameters (e.g. performance metrics and environmental conditions).
Scalability: The accuracy of a digital twin can scale from a single asset (e.g. a machine) to complex systems (e.g. an entire manufacturing plant or organisational process, including its external factors).
Two-way interaction
Bidirectional communication: A digital twin supports two-way communication, allowing not only the updating of the virtual model based on physical world changes, but also enabling the virtual model to influence its real-world counterpart. For instance, adjustments made in the virtual model can be implemented in the real-world system.
Predictive and prescriptive capabilities: Beyond mere replication, a digital twin can predict future states and prescribe actions based on simulations, scenario analysis or machine learning algorithms.
Comprehensive lifecycle representation
Lifecycle coverage: A digital twin spans the entire lifecycle of the system, organisation or asset it represents, from design and development through to operation, maintenance and even decommissioning. This ensures that insights can be derived at any stage, supporting continuous improvement and adaptation.
Change management: It adapts to changes in the physical environment, evolving over time as the real-world counterpart undergoes modifications, whether in design, operation or environment.
Simulation and scenario analysis
What-if scenarios: A digital twin enables the simulation of various scenarios and potential changes before they are implemented in the physical world. This includes testing new designs, operational strategies or responses to hypothetical events, all within a risk-free virtual environment.
Optimisation: By analysing different scenarios, the digital twin helps in optimising performance, reducing costs, improving efficiency and enhancing risk mitigation.
Advanced analytics and machine learning
Data-driven insights: A digital twin leverages advanced analytics, including predictive modelling, machine learning and AI to extract meaningful insights from the vast amounts of data it processes. This allows organisations to predict outcomes, prevent failures and optimise operations.
Learning capability: The digital twin can “learn” from the data it receives, continuously improving its accuracy and predictive capabilities over time.
It’s important to note, however, a digital twin can still function effectively and add value without ML and AI, instead relying on real-time data integration, simulation and rule-based systems, until enough data is generated to create ML models.
Contextual awareness
Environment and ecosystem awareness: A digital twin understands the context in which the physical asset, organisation or process operates, including its environment, external influences and interdependencies with other systems, enhancing the relevance and precision of the insights generated.
Interoperability and integration
Seamless integration: Digital twins are designed to integrate seamlessly with other digital systems, tools and platforms within an organisation. This interoperability ensures that the digital twin can act as a central hub for data and insights, interacting with various enterprise systems like ERP, CRM and PLM.
Modularity and scalability: The architecture of a digital twin should allow it to be modular, enabling different components to be updated, replaced or scaled independently, which is critical for adapting to evolving organisational needs.
Visualisation and user interaction
User-friendly interface: A digital twin often includes advanced visualisation tools such as 2D & 3D models, dashboards or even augmented reality (AR) interfaces, simplifying users’ interactions and interpretations of the virtual model. The use of these depends on the need, however.
Interactive decision support: Users can interact with the digital twin to perform analyses, run simulations and explore different operational strategies, all through an intuitive and accessible interface.
Security and compliance
Data security: Given that a digital twin deals with real-time and potentially sensitive data, robust security measures are a fundamental characteristic. This includes data encryption, secure communication protocols and compliance with industry standards and regulations.
Governance and compliance: Digital twins must adhere to governance frameworks and compliance requirements, ensuring that the data and operations they manage meet regulatory and ethical standards.
What are the advantages of digital twins for organisations?
Proactive maintenance
The system sent automatic notifications when machines required attention, whether due to routine maintenance, in response to a negative trend or as a response to an unexpected incident. This minimised downtime and ensured continuous production with a higher utilisation rate.
Trend analysis
The digital model tracked stats over time, allowing for trend analysis. This feature was invaluable in predicting when a machine might require more significant intervention or identifying when a production line was consistently underperforming.
Quality assurance
By integrating the testing processes into the digital twin, the system provided real-time feedback on the quality of the fire detectors being produced. Engineers could react quickly to any deviations, ensuring that only high-quality products left the facility.
Enhanced decision-making
Digital twins provide a comprehensive view of organisational operations, enabling decision-makers to visualise the impact of changes before they are implemented. This leads to more informed and strategic decisions, reducing risks and improving outcomes.
Operational efficiency
By simulating processes and workflows, organisations can identify inefficiencies and bottlenecks in real-time, allowing for continuous optimisation and therefore improved productivity, reduced costs and agility to change.
Predictive maintenance and risk management
Digital twins can predict potential failures or risks by analysing data trends and patterns, minimising downtime, preventing costly disruptions and enhancing resilience.
Scalability and flexibility
Organisations can use digital twins to model and test new business strategies, products or services without disrupting existing operations, enabling businesses to innovate and adapt to changing market conditions with minimal risk.
Employee and resource optimisation
By simulating human behaviours and interactions within the organisation, digital twins can optimise resource allocation, improve workforce planning and enhance employee engagement.
What challenges arise when creating digital twins?
Complexity and customisation
Developing a digital twin for an organisation is inherently complex due to the need to capture and integrate diverse data sources, processes and systems. Additionally, each organisation has unique requirements, complicating the creation of a one-size-fits-all solution.
Data integration and quality
A digital twin’s accuracy and effectiveness depends on the quality and integration of data. Inconsistent, incomplete or siloed data can compromise its ability to provide reliable insights, leading to suboptimal decision-making.
Scalability of platforms
Most existing platforms for creating digital twins are rigid and domain-specific, limiting their applicability across different industries or organisational needs and potentially hindering organisations from fully leveraging the potential of digital twins.
High development costs and time
The process of designing, developing and deploying a digital twin is often time-consuming and expensive. This can be a significant barrier for organisations, particularly those with limited resources.
How Mood can help
For organisations lacking the confidence to build their own digital twin from scratch, Mood consultants work directly with customers to equip them with the necessary skills to progress towards an agile, data-driven future. Contact Mood today to begin your journey.
Stay tuned for the next blog in this three-part series, where we’ll explore the unique approach to digital twins offered by Mood and how organisations that leverage Mood’s capabilities can enhance their digital twin experience.
Digital twins have emerged as a transformative concept that offers unprecedented opportunities for organisations to monitor, analyse and optimise their operations. However, the term “digital twin” is often misunderstood or oversimplified, leading to confusion about its true value and application. In this blog series, we will demystify the concept of digital twins, particularly in the organisational context, explore their advantages and challenges, and assess Mood’s innovative approach to creating agile digital twins that enables organisations to achieve enhanced clarity, consistency and rapid optimisation.
Real-life example: Creating an early digital twin of a manufacturing shop floor
Early in my career, I embarked on a project that would essentially become a digital twin of a manufacturing shop floor and associated processes. This experience was a formative one, laying the groundwork for my current understanding of how digital representations can drive efficiency, insight and optimisation in real-world operations.
The challenge: Optimising production, maintenance & testing processes
The manufacturing facility I worked at produced fire detectors, and the shop floor was a bustling environment where efficiency and quality were paramount. However, managing the maintenance of machines and the rigorous testing of the manufactured products presented significant manual processes and thus challenges. The facility needed a system that could not only track and manage these processes but provide insights into potential issues before they became critical.
The solution: A digital model using Microsoft Visio, SharePoint, InfoPath & Raspberry Pis
Visualisation with Visio
To tackle these challenges, I created a visual model of the shop floor using Microsoft Visio. This model detailed the layout of the shop floor, with the various machines and their specific roles in the manufacturing process. The visual representation served as a foundation for what would later evolve into a more sophisticated digital twin.
Data management with SharePoint
To bring this model to life, I used Microsoft SharePoint to create data lists that held critical information about the machines, maintenance schedules and test results. These data lists became the backbone of the system, feeding data into the Visio model, allowing it to be more than just a static diagram.
Interactive user interfaces with InfoPath
For the maintenance and test engineers, I developed user interfaces using Microsoft InfoPath. These interfaces enabled them to input data related to maintenance schedules, findings, test results and general information. Engineers could also report incidents such as unexpected machine downtimes directly into the system. This data entry was crucial, as it provided the real-time updates necessary for the model to reflect the current state of the shop floor accurately.
Data capture with Raspberry Pis
To further enhance the system’s capabilities, data collected directly from the machines using Raspberry Pis, such as throughput rates, machine performance metrics and any deviations from expected operation was fed into the SharePoint lists via CSV files periodically. This integration of what was essentially an early form of IoT devices was a critical step towards creating a more responsive and accurate digital representation of the shop floor.
The outcome: A digital twin of the shop floor processes
What emerged from these efforts was, in essence, a digital twin of the manufacturing shop floor. This system provided near-real time dashboards that displayed the status of the machines and their key metrics. Engineers could gauge which machines were approaching tolerance levels for throughput or which production lines were close to failing quality tests.
Reflection: Realising the concept of a digital twin
By visualising the shop floor, integrating near-real time data and enabling interactive user interfaces, I was able to create a system that mirrored the physical world and provided actionable insights to improve efficiency, quality and maintenance in the form of what is now known to be a digital twin. This early project taught me the importance of digital representation in driving real-world outcomes and laid the foundation for my ongoing work in developing and advocating for a flexible, agile platform that can be adapted to any organisational domain and enable rapid turnaround without the need to cobble together several tools.
How Mood can help
For organisations lacking the confidence to build their own digital twin from scratch, Mood consultants work directly with customers to equip them with the necessary skills to progress towards an agile, data-driven future. For further insights, download our full whitepaper “Understanding Digital Twins” or Contact Mood today to find out more.
Stay tuned for the next blog in this three-part series, where we’ll dive into the characteristics of digital twins including their advantages, challenges and what organisations can expect from them.
As cybersecurity threats loom large, it’s critical that organisations consider the security of their software from the outset.
Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) and Software Composition Analysis (SCA) are three essential methodologies that can be used to identify vulnerabilities in software before it is shipped. Each plays a vital role in an organisation’s robust security strategy, offering unique benefits and complementing one another to safeguard applications throughout the development lifecycle. With this in mind, how does each tool impact software security, and how can they help your organisation bolster its security testing capabilities?
What is SAST, DAST, and SCA?
SAST (Static Application Security Testing)
SAST involves analysing source code, bytecode or binaries without executing the programme. It is typically performed early in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), helping developers catch vulnerabilities during the development phase. SAST is like reviewing a blueprint before constructing a building— it identifies flaws in the underlying structure.
DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing)
In contrast to SAST, DAST focuses on running applications in a live environment to find vulnerabilities in the application’s runtime behaviour. It simulates attacks to detect issues that might not be apparent in static analysis, such as input validation errors or authentication weaknesses.
SCA (Software Composition Analysis)
Software Composition Analysis (SCA) is a methodology and set of tools used to identify and manage open-source components within software applications. It scans the codebase to detect third-party and open-source libraries, frameworks, and packages. SCA tools analyse these components to ensure they meet security, license compliance, and quality standards.
Benefits of SAST
Early detection of vulnerabilities
SAST identifies security flaws during the development stage, saving time and reducing the cost of fixing vulnerabilities later.
Automated and scalable
Modern SAST tools integrate seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines, providing automated scans that can scale with the development team’s needs.
Improved code quality
Beyond security, SAST also aids in improving overall code quality by identifying potential logic errors, dead code, or inefficient patterns.
Compliance
SAST helps ensure compliance with regulations and standards like PCI DSS, GDPR, and OWASP, which mandate secure coding practices.
SAST tools CACI uses to support customers
SonarQube – Offers detailed code analysis (vulnerabilities, code bugs, and smells) and security vulnerabilities which integrates with various CI/CD tools.
Checkmarx – Specialises in detecting vulnerabilities in source code and includes support for multiple programming languages.
Fortify Static Code Analyzer – Comprehensive in identifying vulnerabilities across a wide range of programming languages.
Veracode Static Analysis – Offers a cloud-based platform for static code scanning, emphasising compliance and risk assessment.
SpotBugs – A successor to FindBugs, this isan open-source static code analyser which detects possible bugs in Java programmes.
Potential errors are classified in four ranks: (i) scariest, (ii) scary, (iii) troubling and (iv) of concern.
Benefits of DAST
Runtime vulnerability detection
DAST identifies issues such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS) and other runtime vulnerabilities that static analysis might miss.
Real-world simulation
By emulating real-world attacks, DAST provides insight into how an application performs under adversarial conditions.
Technology agnostic
Since it doesn’t rely on source code, DAST can test applications regardless of the underlying technology stack.
Post-deployment assurance
DAST can verify the security of applications in production environments, ensuring that deployed applications remain secure.
DAST tools CACI uses to support customers
OWASP ZAP – Open-source tool favoured for its user-friendly interface and active community support, and identifies vulnerabilities as listed in the OWASP Top 10.
Burp Suite – Widely used by security professionals for its advanced penetration testing capabilities.
Netsparker – Known for its automation features and ability to identify vulnerabilities with minimal false positives.
AppSpider – Tailored for dynamic testing of modern web and mobile applications.
Benefits of SCA
Security management
SCA identifies known vulnerabilities in open-source components using databases like the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) which link vulnerabilities to the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) system that categorises weakness in software and hardware.
Licence compliance
Ensures associated software libraries and dependencies adherence to open-source licences (e.g., MIT, GPL, Apache) and helps avoid legal issues related to non-compliance.
Risk management
Improves visibility into the software supply chain, ensuring third-party components are secure and compliant, and can provide detailed reporting (akin to a bill of materials) for audits and governance processes.
Popular SCA tools CACI uses to support customers
Snyk – Developer-centric SCA tool focusing on security vulnerabilities and licence compliance and integrates with development environments and CI/CD pipelines.
Black Duck – Comprehensive SCA tool for open-source security and licence compliance management, providing policy enforcement and vulnerability scanning.
Understanding the synergy of SAST and DAST
While SAST and DAST offer distinct advantages, combining them creates a powerful defence against vulnerabilities. SAST addresses issues at the code level, preventing bugs from propagating into production, while DAST uncovers runtime vulnerabilities that static analysis cannot detect. Together, they provide comprehensive coverage, reducing the attack surface and ensuring a secure software ecosystem.For example:
SAST might detect unvalidated user inputs during code review, while DAST confirms whether input validation issues could lead to SQL injection when the application is running.
SAST can identify insecure cryptographic practices, whereas DAST tests whether those practices are exploitable in a live environment.
Benefits of implementing SAST/DAST/and SCA together
Holistic security coverage
The combined approach tackles vulnerabilities from both the development and runtime perspectives.
Cost and time efficiency
Detecting and fixing vulnerabilities at different stages prevents costly post-deployment fixes and potential breaches.
Increased trust and compliance
Organisations gain confidence in their applications by assuring customers and stakeholders of their commitment to security.
Proactive security culture
Incorporating all three methodologies fosters a proactive approach to cybersecurity, embedding it as a core principle of the SDLC.
How CACI can help
SAST, DAST and SCA are indispensable tools in a comprehensive application security strategy. By addressing vulnerabilities at different stages of the development lifecycle, they significantly reduce the risk of cyberattacks, enhance software reliability and ensure compliance with security standards. By leveraging several SAST/DAST/SCA tools, organisations can secure their applications and build a robust foundation of trust with their users.
At CACI, we integrate SAST, DAST, and SCA into our software development and deployment workflows, creating a layered defence that keeps vulnerabilities at bay while enabling continuous delivery of secure, high-quality software. To learn more about how we can help your organisation enhance its security testing and application efforts, contact us today.
Delivering consistent and personalised customer experiences can be difficult when processes, data and touchpoints are fragmented across a variety of departments and systems. This disconnect often results in inconsistent customer interactions, slower response times and missed opportunities for engagement, ultimately leading to customer dissatisfaction and churn.
These missed opportunities may be heightened if resource and workforce planning has not been refined within an organisation. While this planning is critical, it can become obfuscated by fluctuating demands, skill gaps and shifting operational needs. Traditional planning approaches are often static and unable to adapt quickly enough to changes in the business environment, leading to underutilisation of resources, staffing imbalances and missed opportunities.
So, what can organisations do to counter the effects of CX issues or resource and workforce planning difficulties by leveraging the capabilities of a platform like Mood?
How organisations can optimise customer experience (CX)
Creating a digital twin of an organisation (DTO) can substantially alter the customer experience. To optimise customer experience, organisations need a unified, end-to-end view of the customer journey that connects every touchpoint to the underlying processes and systems, which is made capable by the likes of a DTO. A DTO helps organisations gain a more granular understanding of customers’ behaviours, patterns, interactions and preferences by integrating and automating customer data. Data can be analysed within the DTO to help organisations personalise their messaging, products or services, anticipate customers’ needs and tailor their messaging, products or services to achieve optimal customer satisfaction. Through a DTO, departments across an organisation will work from a single source of truth and can ultimately deliver these seamless experiences across all channels.
What difference will optimised customer experiences make for an organisation?
Optimised customer experiences lead to improved satisfaction, increased loyalty and higher revenue through repeat customers making repeat purchases. These repeat customers are also more likely to recommend the business to others, further increasing potential customer loyalty and revenue. Through a DTO, organisations can deliver consistent, high-quality services while adapting quickly to changing customer needs and preferences.
How organisations can augment their resource & workforce planning capabilities
To overcome the aforementioned challenges that may arise with resource and workforce planning, organisations need a dynamic planning approach that integrates real-time data, predictive analytics and scenario modelling. By creating a living model of their workforce and resources through a digital twin of the organisation (DTO), organisations can gain a comprehensive view of the operations, processes and structures that form the organisation and allow for a thorough analysis of resource needs and workforce allocation to take place. Through this, future needs can be forecasted and skill gaps can be identified before they impact operations. By being able to simulate and test various scenarios through the DTO, organisations can make more informed decisions and effectively plan for various staffing or planning outcomes.
How augmenting resource & workforce planning will revolutionise organisations
A DTO will ensure that an organisation not only achieves optimised resource and workforce planning, but improved capacity management and productivity and a more flexible organisation that can respond quickly to changes in demand. This ultimately enables an organisation to become more resilient and capable of scaling efficiently as it grows.
Mood provides a non-technical, dynamic platform with everything a business needs to create and manage a digital twin of an organisation that maps out the entire customer journey from start to finish and outlines resources and workforce, integrating real-time data with predictive analytics.
By connecting every touchpoint with real-time data and underlying processes, Mood ensures that all customer interactions are consistent, timely and personalised. With tools for automating customer interactions and optimising workflows, Mood empowers businesses to continuously refine and enhance customer experiences, leading to stronger customer relationships and sustained growth.
By enabling scenario modelling and dynamic planning, Mood ensures organisations can optimise resource allocation, manage capacity and anticipate future workforce needs by having the right resources and skills in place to meet demands, minimising inefficiencies and maximise productivity.
Many digital transformation initiatives fail because they lack alignment between strategy and execution, suffer from disconnected technology adoption and face resistance from within the organisation. Aligning assets and IT strategies with business objectives can also be cumbersome due to fragmented systems, outdated processes and a lack of real-time visibility into asset lifecycles, dependencies and impacts and inefficient maintenance processes. These issues and misalignments can lead to wasted resources or investments, delayed projects or increased downtimes and underwhelming results or missed opportunities to optimise asset performance and extend asset life.
So, what can organisations do to mitigate these challenges and effectively manage their enterprise architecture, IT strategies and assets now and into the future? How can a platform like Mood increase the chances of success?
How organisations can achieve digital transformation and enhanced innovation management
Digital transformation requires a holistic approach where strategy, technology and processes are integrated. Businesses need a platform that provides a living model of the organisation, allowing for iterative development, testing and scaling of innovations. A digital twin of an organisation can support this. By aligning initiatives with business goals and tracking progress in real time, digital transformation can be managed effectively.
What will digital transformation and enhanced innovation management do for an organisation?
Digital transformation and enhanced innovation management will accelerate an organisation towards successful innovation projects and gaining a stronger competitive position. Through a DTO’s ability to virtually replicate an organisation, simulations, analyses and testing can be made without compromising the organisation itself. As a result, the organisation will become more adaptable and better equipped to leverage technology for growth.
What can organisations do to enhance their enterprise architecture & IT strategies?
Organisations need a living model of their enterprise architecture that is directly connected to business strategy. A DTO provides a comprehensive view of an organisation’s IT systems, processes and technologies, allowing for a detailed analysis of the existing IT landscape. Through the DTO, an organisation can integrate IT systems, processes and strategic goals into a unified model. This ensures that IT investments will be aligned with long-term objectives and can adapt quickly to changes.
What will enhancing enterprise architecture & IT strategies do for a business?
By enhancing enterprise architecture and IT strategies through a DTO, organisations will achieve greater alignment between their IT and business goals, more efficient use of resources and faster project delivery. With the digital simulations that can be conducted via the DTO, new strategies can be tested and the potential impact of various technology can also be more accurately assessed. Ultimately, the organisation’s IT strategy will become a core enabler of business growth and innovation.
How to effectively manage assets
To effectively manage assets, businesses need a centralised, real-time view of their entire asset portfolio. By integrating asset data with predictive analytics, organisations can optimise maintenance schedules, reduce downtimes and make informed decisions about asset lifecycle management. A digital twin of your asset management ecosystem will provide a comprehensive, accurate and continuously updated model that enables proactive asset management.
What will effectively managing assets do for the business?
Some of the common asset management challenges include:
Inconsistent data and siloed systems: Asset data is often scattered across multiple systems and departments, making it difficult to maintain a single, accurate source of truth.
Inefficient maintenance planning: Traditional maintenance strategies are either too reactive (leading to costly downtime) or overly preventive (resulting in unnecessary expenditures).
Limited visibility into asset performance: Without real-time insights into asset conditions, organisations struggle to optimise usage, predict failures and make data-driven decisions regarding repairs or replacements.
Optimising asset management leads to several key outcomes that mitigate potential challenges, including:
Reduced downtimes and maintenance costs: By predicting failures and optimising maintenance schedules, businesses can minimise unplanned downtime and reduce unnecessary maintenance activities.
Improved asset utilisation and performance: Organisations can maximise the use of their assets by monitoring performance in real time and adjusting as needed.
Extended asset lifecycles: Through better maintenance and data-driven decision-making, businesses can extend the lifespan of their assets, reducing capital expenditures and improving return on investment (ROI).
How Mood enables digital transformation
Mood provides a non-technical, dynamic platform with everything a business needs to create and manage a digital twin of an organisation that connects digital transformation initiatives with the strategic and operational layers of the business, integrate enterprise architecture with real-time operational data and business strategy and manage assets.
By offering real-time visibility, iterative development tools and alignment with long-term goals, Mood empowers organisations to drive digital transformation with precision. With tools for dependency mapping, scenario planning and strategy alignment, IT decisions are always aligned with business objectives for successful projects, optimised resource allocation and a more agile IT infrastructure. As a living model that tracks asset conditions, Mood predicts maintenance needs and provides insights into performance, empowering organisations to move from reactive to proactive asset management.
Managing risk and maintaining compliance becomes increasingly difficult as regulations evolve and businesses become more complex. Manual tracking and fragmented data make it hard to ensure that processes remain compliant, while inconsistent governance can lead to costly penalties and operational risks.
Of a similarly complex nature are mergers and acquisitions (M&A), which integrate people, processes and systems. Without a clear plan and visibility into potential synergies and risks, M&A integrations can lead to delays, inefficiencies and missed opportunities for value creation.
With this in mind, how can Mood help organisations tackle risk management, compliance monitoring and the complexities associated with M&A integrations more effectively?
How to bolster risk management & compliance monitoring
Organisations need a proactive approach to risk management and compliance that is embedded directly within their operational processes. Not only can Mood provide a central platform to manage risk, but the digital twin of an organisation’s (DTO) capabilities can simulate various risk scenarios, assess the potential impact of compliance measures and flag non-compliant areas. Its ability to utilise real-time data and analytics for real-time monitoring, automated compliance checks and traceability will be key to reducing risks and ensuring that the business remains audit ready.
What outcomes will organisations reach by bolstering risk management & compliance monitoring?
Proactive compliance and risk management will lead to fewer regulatory breaches, lower compliance costs and smoother audit processes. Once optimised, organisations will become more resilient and possess greater control over potential risks and regulatory requirements. This approach will also enable an organisation to make more informed decisions, assess and implement preventative measures and adhere to regulations and standards, strengthen the wider organisation’s risk management and compliance monitoring efforts.
How organisations can plan for a successful M&A integration
For an M&A integration to be successful, a clear understanding of both the current and future states of the combined organisations must be reached. By mapping out processes, identifying overlaps and planning for integration, businesses can execute M&A strategies with precision, maximising value and minimising disruption. A digital twin of an organisation can support this by helping an organisation assess the impact of the merger on various functions and predict outcomes following the merger.
What will refined M&A integration planning do for an organisation?
Once M&A integration planning has been refined, organisations will reap the benefits of faster, smoother integrations that come with minimised operational risks and maximised synergies. The organisation will ultimately achieve its strategic goals while realising the full value of the merger or acquisition. With the help of the digital twin, an organisation will be equipped with a comprehensive integration strategy that will be able to mitigate risks and ensure a smoother transition post-merger. Cross-organisation communication will also be strengthened with the help of the digital twin, as it can streamline the integration process itself and align the wider business on the goals of the M&A integration.
Mood provides a non-technical, dynamic platform with everything a business needs by enabling the integration of compliance and risk management into a digital twin of your organisation. It embeds governance rules within process models and provides real-time monitoring to ensure compliance is consistently maintained. Automated reporting and traceability make it easier to manage audits and reduce risks, while the ability to simulate changes ensures your organisation remains compliant even as regulations evolve.
By identifying overlaps, visualising synergies and planning integration steps in detail, Mood also ensures that M&A activities are executed smoothly, and that the full potential of the merger is realised while minimising disruption to ongoing operations.
To learn more about how Mood can transform your business, you can find out more here or speak to one of our experts directly.
