Metaverse: Overwhelmed by Security issues

Metaverse being at its beta stage of development, pitfalls stretch from Data privacy to Social Engineering/Phishing are a common sight. It seems the problems among mainstream social media firms gets increased more than ten-fold with Metaverse — a concept driven by the interweaving of various technologies.

These problems paint a bleak future for Metaverse which risks being a mere ambitious overhyped R&D project.

Let’s discuss this then,

a) Data privacy:

Metaverse aims to provide an immersive experience that relies on real-time processing and analysis of hordes of sensitive user behavior data. And currently, there are no regulations or governing bodies tackling privacy concerns of users’ data ownership rights and data collection & handling framework for businesses.

Experts agree that data collected through Metaverse could be leveraged to perform social engineering attacks, impersonation, and other illegal activities done esp. for monetary gains.

For example, deep fakes can be leveraged to commit crimes, criminals can infiltrate a metaverse to impersonate companies, providers, officials, etc.

b) Vulnerabilities with the Technologies used:

Coordination among several technologies becomes crucial to accomplish the Metaverse’s vision. Virtual and Augmented Reality are two such critical technologies that serve as a gateway to the Metaverse world using potentially intrusive sensors.

The level of access these fairly new gadgets have, from our biometric data in fingerprints, and retina scans, to a real-time location with no regulatory body to govern it, creates a perfect storm for cyber-security breaches /attacks.

Furthermore, Experts unanimously agree, VR and AR devices act as the entry point to the Metaverse world, and are at grave risk of malicious & inadvertent hacks.

Certain criteria should get looked over when dealing with VR/AR ranging from its Reliance (Physical Security), and Responsibility to Data integrity.

c) Alteration of Behavioral aspect of Human Interaction in a society:

We, as a social species need meaningful interactions for growth as well as for mental stability. However, today most of these interactions have been shifted to virtual spaces which Metaverse aims to improve on through immersive experience.

With that, the effects of existing threats can be amplified and become more severe in virtual worlds such as virtual stalking and virtual spying.

Metaverse, as pundits have expected could become the breeding ground of disinformation, hate, and extremism that fuels even more Polarization and Radicalization.

A report by The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found out that VR Chat (i.e; a highly reviewed app within Facebook’s metaverse) — was filled with harassment, racism, and sexually explicit material.

This online bullying or terrorism could get spilled over into politics, health, and other financial and sociological aspects that impact society.