Alert on using Metaverse

The metaverse can be defined as a virtual environment in which people connect, interact and shop. This convergence of the digital and physical world stems from the Greek meta, meaning beyond or after, and verse, short for universe. Enterprises that are considering joining the metaverse bandwagon have been put on high alert against imminent cyberattacks.

Metaverse will create an immersive virtual world that combines augmented and virtual reality, blockchain and it also includes economic and social spaces where users from anywhere in the world can enjoy a wide range of content and experiences. Top technology players such as Facebook (Meta), Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia are already invested in developing this next generation of IoT.

There is no way one could have missed out from the metaverse. The metaverse brings the assurance of an open, shared, and persistent digital environment that connects communities, products, solutions, creators, entertainment, workspaces, commerce, and many other aspects of the real world.

Cyberattacks old and new will inevitably find their way into the metaverse and securing the metaverse will present new challenges in comparison to existing digital platforms, however, according to cybersecurity executives and researchers. Monitoring the metaverse and detecting attacks on these new platforms will “be more complex” than on current platforms.

With the metaverse, you’re going to have an explosion of devices, infrastructure and data so it can just increase your attack surface by an order of magnitude.

According to the Acronis Cyber Protection Week Global Report 2022, cybercriminals are exploiting the IT complexity to launch catastrophic cyberattacks. With most users still not fully aware of the magnitude of the cyber threats they are facing in the wake of increased metaverse adoption, daily data theft of credit card, identity, passwords, etc., malware, phishing attacks are likely to increase by 200% by 2024 due to unpreparedness or lack of a cyber protection master plan.

Device security remains high on the cyber protection priority list as platform and device hacking is widely expected to soar as the metaverse uptake also skyrockets. Threats and breaches to devices are likely to worsen and could subsequently also have actual terminal consequences in the physical world.

Today firms use modern infrastructure to secure their IT systems. However, there is still always a threat of cyberattacks. These issues will amplify in the metaverse unless we have innovative ways of enforcing cybersecurity governance.