Beneath the buzz, the Metaverse is arriving in predictable and unexpected ways.
Some new experiences with headsets and mixed reality will come your way - quite literally - but other effects will be harder to spot. As with all new categories, we will see both intentional and unintentional innovations and experiences, and the security risks will be higher than we initially thought.
The novelty of any new technology has inherent social engineering advantages. In the virtual world, fraud and phishing attacks targeting your identity can come from familiar faces (literally), such as an avatar impersonating your colleague, rather than a misleading domain name or email address. These types of threats could be deal-breakers for businesses if we don't act now.
Because there won't be a single metaverse platform or experience, interoperability is also critical. For example, trust cannot end at the door of a virtual meeting space - it must extend to the interactions and applications inside - otherwise security uncertainty will hinder what people can say or do in new virtual spaces and create gaps that can be exploited.
This brings us to the importance of these early years for Metaverse: at the beginning of this era, we have an opportunity to establish specific core security principles to foster trust and peace of mind in the Metaverse experience. If we miss this opportunity, we will unnecessarily prevent the adoption of technologies that have enormous potential to improve accessibility, collaboration, and business. The safe community must work together to lay the groundwork for safe work, shopping and play.
So what can we expect - and how can we create a believable environment in virtual worlds?
It is important to remember that history often repeats itself