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Metaworse? The Trouble with the Metaverse

August 08, 2022

Metaverse or Metaworse? Cybersecurity Threats Against the Internet of Experiences Download Metaverse or Metaworse? Cybersecurity Threats Against the Internet of Experiences



Metaworse?

The Trouble with the Metaverse

Innovators are diving into a new and immersive virtual space, but with new technology comes new threats. We bring forward possible problematic issues that metaverse pioneers should be wary of.

What is the metaverse?

Right now, there is no definitive answer. There are plenty of differing opinions about what the metaverse is and how it fits into the bigger picture of the internet. But the metaverse is still in the early days of development, and many companies are creating new technologies to carve out their nook in this immersive virtual landscape.

For now, we can define the metaverse as a cloud distributed, multi-vendor, immersive-interactive operating environment that users can access through different categories of connected devices (both static and mobile). It uses Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 technologies to provide an interactive layer on top of the existing Internet. As proposed, it is an open platform for working and playing inside an extended reality environment, and it will also be a communications layer for smart city devices.

However, given the changing circumstances, we fully expect our definition to evolve as the metaverse concept evolves. Of course, this uncertainty makes securing the environment much more complicated.

It is difficult to identify cyberthreats for a space that doesn’t fully exist yet — and may not even be realized in the form that we envision. But, analyzing the nature of the technology and taking into account the current cybercriminal landscape, we were able to conceptualize several critical threats against and inside the metaverse. Our research paper fully outlines these threats, but we present a few use cases in the following sections.

Metaverse Threats


Darkverse

The darkverse is the deep web brought to the metaverse. It is a space for underground marketplaces, criminal communications, and illegal activities.

A darkverse space could be configured so that users can only access it if they are in a specific physical location and have valid authentication tokens. Criminals can meet and trade in these protected spaces, inaccessible to law enforcement agencies.

We can expect the metaverse to change and evolve, shifting course as more ideas are tried and tested. But what we know now is that more and more companies are investing in metaverse hardware and software — this is the time to make sure security is fully ingrained in the development and production of those technologies.

We explore the darkverse further in our video below. And, you can learn about what the metaverse means for network infrastructure in our report "Metaverse Broadband Infrastructure Security". You can also read more about metaverse security issues in our research paper, “Metaverse or Metaworse? Cybersecurity Threats Against the Internet of Experiences.”


Metaverse technology continues to advance, but legitimate businesses will not be the only parties using these new spaces. Cybercriminals will migrate from dark web forums to concealed corners of the metaverse. Instead of meeting in underground forums, criminals will be able to virtually walk into metaverse dark web markets.



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Posted in Cybercrime & Digital Threats, Research, Metaverse, Cybercrime, Cybercriminal Underground

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