Exploitation and abuse in the Metaverse will rise in 2023:According to a report from cybersecurity company Kaspersky, cybercriminals will flock to the Metaverse next year to prey on unsuspecting participants in the virtual world.
Phishing, ransomware attacks, and malware aren’t the only problems plaguing the cryptocurrency industry; cybersecurity experts say that the Metaverse could be a major target in the coming year.
Cyberthreats to Consumers: According to the cybersecurity firm Kaspersky’s “Predictions for 2023” report released on November 28, there will be more exploitation of the Metaverse due to the absence of data protection and moderation rules.
Kaspersky acknowledged that there are only a few metaverse platforms at the moment, but that the number of metaverses is expected to rise in the coming years and that the market may even reach $50 billion by 2026.Cybercriminals will be drawn to the ecosystem as a result of this expansion, hoping to take advantage of unwitting participants in virtual worlds.
“This could create complex conflicts between the requirements of the regulations regarding data breach notification because the metaverse experience is universal and does not adhere to regional data protection laws, such as GDPR,” the article states.
Since data breaches already occur frequently on social media, it stands to reason that the Metaverse will follow suit. In 2021, social media was responsible for more than $1 billion in losses related to crypto scams.
Additionally, sexual assault and virtual abuse will spread into Metaverse ecosystems, according to Kaspersky. It mentioned instances of “avatar rape and abuse” and stated that “this scary trend is likely to follow us into 2023” without protection mechanisms or moderation guidelines.
Due to the social media platform’s lack of user protection and privacy concerns, Meta, the company that used to be Facebook, has already faced a lot of opposition to its Metaverse plans.
One of the cybercriminals’ “prime goals,” according to the report, will be to steal valuable virtual assets and in-game virtual currencies from players and trick them into making dishonest deals. The majority of current games now support monetization or digital currency in some way, which will make them a magnet for bad actors.
Kaspersky pointed out that new social media platforms will also come with more risks. Cybercriminals can start “distributing fake trojanized applications” to infect devices for further malicious purposes, as well as a shift toward augmented reality-based social media.
The report concluded that account hacking, data and money theft, and phishing are the primary threats to the new AR-based social media and metaverse platforms.
