Milestone for industrial digitalisation: Asset Administration Shell standard receives security specification
IDTA publishes new AAS Specification Bundle – with a focus on security
Industrial Digital Twin Association (IDTA) has published a new bundle of the AAS Specifications, the information model of the Asset Administration Shell (AAS), which forms the basis for the standardised Digital Twin in the industry. In five parts, the specification describes how companies can process and structure information in the AAS. The most significant innovation is the newly published part of the specification, ‘Part 4: Security’. This new component introduces a comprehensive Access Control Model for the first time, enabling targeted, fine-grained control of access rights to the AAS. For operational use, this means that providers of Digital Twins can now define differentiated visibility and access rights, e.g. for individual users, groups or organisations. The new bundle is ready for use and available now.
With ‘Part 4: Security’, the AAS receives its long-awaited update: a comprehensive, standardised Access Control Model. This enables detailed control of access rights to all components of the AAS, from individual properties to complete Submodels. The new specification allows precise, transparent and secure authorisation of information. Global visibility, restrictions to specific users or user groups, disclosure of selected attributes only, and much more are possible. In addition, it supports access rules at both the registry and repository levels, ensuring that sensitive data remains reliably protected. This makes Part 4: Security a key milestone for reliable and scalable data exchange in industrial ecosystems.
“The new security specification for the AAS marks a crucial step forward on the path to the industrial implementation of Digital Twins. With the new Access Control Model, we are creating the conditions for companies to make secure and differentiated decisions about who can see or use which data – and all in accordance with an internationally compatible standard. This controllability is essential to ensure that Digital Twins do not remain isolated and become a functioning part of networked industrial processes,” says Christian Mosch, Managing Director of the IDTA.
In addition to the expansion of the scope, the new release also brings improvements in usability. For the first time, all specification parts are available as versioned and searchable HTML documentation. An overview of the release, including all specification parts, is available as PDF and HTML versions on the IDTA website: https://industrialdigitaltwin.org/en/content-hub/aasspecifications