Cybercriminals will flock to the metaverse next year to prey on unsuspecting virtual world participants, according to a report by Kaspersky.
Cybersecurity experts predict that the Metaverse could become a major target in the coming year, adding to the list of ills plaguing the cryptocurrency industry in addition to malware, ransomware attacks, and phishing.
Cybersecurity company Kaspersky warned that due to a lack of data protection and moderation rules, there will be increased exploitation of the metaverse in its “Consumer Cyberthreats: Predictions for 2023” report published on November 28.
Even though there are currently only a few metaverse platforms, Kaspersky acknowledged that this number is expected to grow over the next few years and that the market may even reach $50 billion by 2026.
This growth will attract cybercriminals to the ecosystem who are looking to take advantage of unaware users of virtual worlds:
“As the metaverse experience is universal and does not obey regional data protection laws, such as GDPR, this might create complex conflicts between the requirements of the regulations regarding data breach notification.”
Data breaches are already prevalent on social media, so it makes sense that this trend will continue in the metaverse. As it was reported earlier this year, social media was to blame for more than $1 billion in losses from cryptocurrency scams in 2021.
Kaspersky also anticipated that cyberbullying and sexual assault would seep into the ecosystems of the Metaverse. In addition to mentioning instances of “avatar rape and abuse,” it stated that without safeguards or guidelines for behavior, “this scary trend is likely to follow us into 2023.”
Due to the lack of user protection and privacy concerns on its social media platform, Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has already faced a great deal of opposition regarding its plans for the metaverse.
According to the report, cybercriminals will target player accounts to steal valuable virtual assets or con them into participating in shady transactions in order to obtain in-game virtual currency and valuable items, which will be one of their “prime goals.”
A honeypot for malicious actors will develop as a result of the introduction of some form of monetization or support for digital currencies in the majority of modern games. New social media platforms will increase risks, according to Kaspersky.
With the addition that cybercriminals can begin “distributing fake trojanized applications” to infect devices for additional malicious purposes, it specifically mentioned a shift to social media platforms based on augmented reality. According to the report, the main threats to new AR-based social media and metaverse platforms are account hacking, phishing, and theft of data and money.
