The metaverse is a new and largely unexplored concept. A world without a past history and without rules, which can easily attract the attention of the bad guys. To understand the current scenario and future dynamics, the research and development team of Ermes – Intelligent Web Protection, an Italian company selected by Gartner in the top 100 of world companies that exploit artificial intelligence applied to cybersecurity, has studied the correlation between metaverse and hackers, identifying the dangers that users and companies run in the new three-dimensional reality. Let’s find out together.
Metaverse and hackers: the risks for users
- Information theft: Users may unknowingly share their sensitive data with a hacker, thereby seriously endangering their real assets.
- Impersonation: A hacker could use public information found online to impersonate third parties and obtain personal information of users.
- Identity theft: users could incur in the theft of their avatar. The cybercriminal could pretend to be the real owner and carry out all kinds of malicious actions.
- Theft of cryptocurrencies: being connected to the world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, the metaverse is a greedy prey for hackers, who could try to steal wallets and access keys from users.
- Human joystick attachment: in the metaverse you can check the position of users and intercept them in physical space. The goals can be varied, including deception, violence and extortion.
- Chaperone attack: this attack consists in modifying the boundaries of a user’s virtual environment and can be used to physically damage them, for example by causing them to fall off a real flight of stairs or making them cross dangerous boundaries in the real world.
- Targeted attacks of various kinds: since the metaverse is still a pioneering environment, we cannot foresee all the technological risks and flaws of these systems. The emergence of new forms of cyber attacks is therefore possible.
Metaverse: the dangers for companies
- FOMO (fear of missing out): many companies may feel compelled to be present in the metaverse, to avoid being cut out of the fashion of the moment. This could lead to rash decisions, caused by the medium’s poor knowledge. Unfortunately, there are already several suspicious offers of advertising sales or presence in the metaverse, aimed in particular at businesses.
- Impairment of integrity: a company could expose its data on the metaverse, forgetting that it should be treated in the same way as any public online exposure.
- Copyright infringement: Companies must prevent any violations by identifying the real owners of the content and deciding to what extent their copyright will be permissive.
Marco Payano
Everything I have learned in life I have learned from Star Wars, Monkey Island and The Big Lebowski. I put it into practice on Tech Princess.