Although hypocritical, the Metaverse is largely undefined. “What is the Metaverse?” It is a challenging question to answer. Partly because the definition depends on who it is. As it stands today, the “metaverse” includes virtual reality and what we might previously call “cyberspace” — including digital assets such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, and more.
In the rush to be the first to innovate with metaverse technology, companies are losing control of risk. But risk management is as critical in the metaverse as it is in our physical world – all risks are interconnected and must be managed in a connected manner. Newcomers to the Metaverse must learn to identify these threats, continuously monitor threats, and make decisions based on information gained from past threats and attacks if they are to protect against the high volume and cost of cyber threats. .
Here are three types of malicious threats that widen the scope of attacks for businesses.
Physical hardware risks
From headsets to chips to highly efficient computing power, virtual worlds need hardware to run. The physical hardware used to run Metaverse itself poses a cyber risk.
As people create, expand, and integrate virtual worlds, the vast and powerful potential of this virtual space creates new areas of attack for bad actors to try and breach. To successfully enable access to this digital reality, a collection of hardware gathered from multiple sources includes the man-in-the-middle (MTM) attacks we’ve seen in ATMs and mobile applications.
Related: The dark side of Metavas and how to fight it
Companies moving into or testing the Metaverse will have additional areas of control as part of their risk management strategy to ensure security. Companies must create more advanced and comprehensive security controls for physical hardware and digital gateways.
Risk in cryptocurrency assets
Crypto businesses have been big sources of risk in the Metaverse. While cryptocurrencies are a regulated industry led by experts concerned with security and privacy, the growth of the crypto space has brought greater opportunity for risk.
The growing number of consumer traders, new companies and hackers all add risk to crypto transactions. Crypto has become the main currency for ransomware; As a result, cyber attacks on crypto accounts are on the rise. The growing number of metaverse technologies will continue to threaten crypto security until companies start devoting resources to mitigating such risks.
Monitoring fraudulent activity and implementing secure authentication can make a big difference in cyber security threats, especially in crypto. Threats evolve faster than ever, so constant monitoring of threats is essential.
Organizations can only do so much as private users – owners of crypto wallets – are a big part of the risk. Fraud, hacking, and password threats target individual vulnerabilities. Individuals share an important responsibility in conducting due diligence against crypto threats in the Metaverse.
Identity risk
By design, Metaverse is based on anonymity and liquidity. Unlike the offline world, digital reality allows users to dress up and create their own characters. Digital avatars take on characteristics chosen by their owners, and these identities are not carefully controlled – as in the Internet, aliases.
This opens up individuals and companies that operate the metaverse states, to the point of great danger. As innovation expands rapidly and security becomes a priority, it is difficult for users and metaverse technologists to distinguish between the “good guys” and the “bad guys”. Increasing calls for control over identity threats in the Metaverse stem not only from the inadvertent sharing of information between human players and automated “mimic” avatars (bots), but also from incidents of player-to-player verbal abuse and even sexual harassment. .
Related: 34% of players want to use crypto in the Metaverse, even if they look back
Implementing these privacy-invasion defenses will only become more problematic if the future idea of a metaverse — a large, interconnected web of fully mobile metaverse states — comes to fruition.
Right now, that technology isn’t available yet — and probably never will be. But there’s no doubt that Metaverse is emerging as a real business and consumer technology — and a real risk factor. And like every position, it requires real, proactive risk management.
Gaurav Kapoor He is the CEO and Founder of MetricStream Solutions & Services, responsible for strategy, marketing, solutions and customer engagement. In the year He served as MetricStream’s CFO until 2010. He previously held executive positions at OpenGrowth and ArcadiaOne, and spent several years in business, marketing and operations roles at Citibank in Asia and the Americas.
This article is not intended for general information purposes and should not be construed as legal or investment advice. The views, ideas and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.