Key Takeaways
The metaverse has been called the “Wild West” of cybersecurity because it is a technology of rapid expansion, low regulation, and low recourse for victims of cybercrime.
Challenges of securing the metaverse include: hardening VR headsets, protecting privacy, determining ownership of digital goods, and monitoring safety.
The metaverse has become a hot topic in technology and investing spheres. The social media platform Facebook’s recent announcement of changing its corporate name to “Meta,” to emphasize its “metaverse” vision highlighted the concept’s shift from fringe to mainstream.
The question remains of how many people and how much of themselves will be brought to the new venture. Assuming widespread adoption, it will transform how humans interact with each other in a significant way. However, this new medium, in which people can connect online in enhanced ways, can open up new attack surfaces for cybercriminals. As the vision of the metaverse becomes better defined it is clear that security and privacy will be major factors in its adoption.
What is the metaverse?
Because the concept of the metaverse is still being formed, it's hard to give one definitive answer to this question. Instead, here is a list of popular answers; hopefully, in aggregate they can give you a good idea of what the metaverse is:
an alternate digital reality where people work, play, and socialize
a virtual ‘white space’ that acts as a blank canvas where people can interact with computer-generated environments, objects and scenarios, as well as other users.
a single, universal virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual and augmented reality headsets.
a shared virtual space where people are represented by digital avatars; the virtual world grows and evolves based on the decisions and actions of the society within it
a new one to one digital copy of the world that is searchable, clickable, and machine-readable
an immersive virtual 3D world connecting all sorts of digital environments
a new decentralized marketing ecosystem, characterized as social, live, and persistent, as it will contain a lot of user-generated content
a VR world where one buys and interacts with things that don’t exist in reality but remain linked to an individual’s real-world wealth and identity.
A key principle of the metaverse is portable identity, a users’ ability to take their identity with them — including all the data and relationships built through other digital platforms — to a new virtual world. The metaverse is expected to bring a shift from usernames or login IDs to enhanced digital avatars.
One example that technologists and gamers point to as an early example of metaverse principles is the video game Fortnite. Fortnite is a virtual world where you have your own avatar and you can compete against other players, hang out with friends, and attend concerts or other events. There was a virtual Travis Scott concert in Fortnite where users were placed in venues and got to enjoy his show. Users save up money to buy new outfits and accessories for their avatars and they can even show off their new looks at Fortnite fashion shows.
Challenges of securing the metaverse
One thing the Metaverse will do is expand the attack surface. It is challenging to stay immune from attacks when you’re using the internet in a wide range of ways. You can get attacked while on an audio or video call or as you text. Adding the Metaverse also means increasing the avenues cybercriminals can use to attack you.
The metaverse has been called the “wild west” of cybersecurity because it is a place of rapid expansion, low regulation, and low recourse for victims of fraud. Attempts of hacking, tampering, cheating, and theft are prominent in today’s gaming world. The interconnection between the metaverse economy and the offline economy will only add more incentive for these hackers. Stakes will be much higher than they currently are, so it’s increasingly important to bring more security measures to ensure the safety of this new environment.
Specifically, the metaverse poses a challenge to cybersecurity professionals on the following fronts: hardware, data privacy, digital ownership and monitoring.
Hardware
Technologies that secure the metaverse’s headset devices and accompanying firmware are the most obvious areas for cybersecurity. If metaverse adoption spreads and we find ourselves spending much of each day in VR headsets, securing those devices could become more important than securing phones in the future. Headsets face many of the same threats as other computing devices such as malware, denial of service, ransomware, and man-in-the-middle attacks.
Data Privacy
The metaverse will surely require the processing of enormous amounts of personal data, which will be subject to many of the same increasingly stringent privacy and data processing rules that the social networks face. This will include biometric data such as user movements and physical characteristics when using the VR devices (i.e. heart rates). Protecting that data and analyzing the large amount of transactions undoubtedly will be an important feature in securing the metaverse.
Another key element that will need protection is the digital identity of each user. As mentioned, your metaverse profile will contain much more personal information than your current Google or Facebook account. It will be your entire digital life, your personality — not only with your unique online (and offline) identity, but also with your bank account and other sensitive data. Protecting it against theft will be a critical factor for the entire metaverse endeavor to be successful.
Ownership
Ambiguity of ownership in the metaverse will create a lot of intellectual property disputes. Who will truly own in-game content or items: publishers or users? Are the current business models enough; who drives the sales of the content used and who represents the users who generate content?
The metaverse is heavily centered on the use of cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTS), which can be attractive targets for cybercriminals for a variety of reasons. However, just like in the real art world, collectors can easily be duped by replicas that are minted by cybercriminals poised as legitimate authenticators.
Monitoring
How will users in the metaverse be monitored to ensure any removal of possible illegal operations, morally corrupt conduct, and hate speech? By private companies themselves or by some governmental cyber-police? Policing this behavior will be exponentially harder in the metaverse than current social media because the metaverse data will be much larger and more complex to parse.
Conclusion
As the metaverse concept crystallizes it becomes more and more clear that there will be inherent security challenges in the technology. Between hardware, privacy, digital ownership, and safety monitoring, innovators and regulators have their work cut out for them.