Exploring Risks in the Metaverse in an Immersive Digital Economy

Victor Chang

, Sandra Strittmatter

, Vitor Jesus

, Lewis Golightly

, Pin Ni

and Karl Hall

Aston University, Birmingham, U.K.

Teesside University, Middlesbrough, U.K.

University College London, London, U.K.

drazarx3@gmail.com

Keywords: Metaverse, Immersive, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Extended Reality (XR),

Cybersecurity.

Abstract: The Metaverse is the next paradigm of computing and a combination of the words next and the universe.

Immersive technology such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and

Extended Reality (XR) have been emerging at a fast pace in recent years. The Metaverse aims to solve the

limited social dynamic of using the internet for communications. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the internet

has been used for education, work, and gaming in a more immersive method than ever before. However, the

problem the Metaverse aims to solve is the social limitations of using technology such as Microsoft teams. In

this paper, we address the opportunities of the Metaverse, such as online gaming and an enhanced 3D virtual

community life, alongside the potential of cyber risk and security issues, such as data privacy and information

security. We complement our paper with a risk assessment of the Metaverse, particularly focusing on risks

associated with cybersecurity.

1 INTRODUCTION

There isn't a consensus on the definition of the

Metaverse, yet some argue that it entails all aspects of

Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and

Virtual Reality (VR), which make up the networked

Extended Reality (XR) (Anderson and Rainie, 2022);

others define it as the convergence of the virtual

world and the real world (Deloitte, 2022). While

organizations across sectors are attempting to define

what the future of the Metaverse represents for them,

we see initiatives to leverage the early stages of the

Metaverse to extend their brand presence and

customer touchpoints (Brown, 2022). AR and VR

enhance the Metaverse and enable businesses to

elevate their offering with a new layer of experiences

and interactions (Bechtel and Launer, 2022). For

example, L’Oréal and Avon allow users to try on

makeup virtually using their app or website, enabling

consumers to select their preferred shade. These are

small steps towards transforming customer journeys

into fully immersive experiences that are poised to

permeate and transform retail and advertising, work,

education, entertainment, and social interaction

(Deloitte, 2022).

As this rise of the Metaverse is in motion, there

has been an acceleration in its technological

advancement brought upon by the investment of

brands and new social behaviors stemming from the

COVID-19 pandemic (Anderson and Rainie., 2022).

It is estimated that the market value of the Metaverse

could reach above 750 billion USD by 2026, thus

motivating investment in devices, tools, and

platforms (Elnaj, 2022). The Metaverse presents

many opportunities for businesses and consumers,

with brands creating content that generates value for

customers and extends brand interaction (Elnaj,

2022). However, along with the rapid development

and perceived opportunities and advantages, many

risks and uncertainties are associated with it (Arbanas

et al., 2022). Brands must integrate risk identification

and mitigation within their plans to leverage the

Metaverse in their marketing plans; however, it must

come with an integrated exercise on the risks it poses,

such as cybersecurity, brand reputation, or digital

rights management (Arbanas et al., 2022).

This paper offers an analysis of risks associated

with the Metaverse as well as shedding light on its

scope, challenges, and opportunities. Our

contributions are as follows:

Chang, V., Strittmatter, S., Jesus, V., Golightly, L., Ni, P. and Hall, K.

Exploring Risks in the Metaverse in an Immersive Digital Economy.

DOI: 10.5220/0011990900003494

In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Finance, Economics, Management and IT Business (FEMIB 2023), pages 107-113

ISBN: 978-989-758-646-0; ISSN: 2184-5891

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

107

• a review of academic literature around

immersive reality and the Metaverse;

• a conceptualization of the cyber threat

landscape in the immersive technology and the

Metaverse;

• an approach to a set of recommendations to

integrate risk, opportunity, and business

strategy.

The remainder of our paper is as follows. In Section

2, we identify existing themes and review the current

literature. In Section 3, we present emerging directions

and challenges. Section 4 concludes our paper.

2 BACKGROUND

In this section, we will focus on contemporary risks

associated with immersive technology and the

Metaverse. We will then move on to address the

challenges with these risks and cybersecurity

practices that can be adopted to defend against them.

2.1 Risks Associated with the

Metaverse

Early opportunities for brands are being leveraged in

gaming and fitness, among other industries (Elnaj.,

2022). However, brands want to offer extended

services and integrate virtual environments to create

enhanced user experiences beyond playing games.

They will likely use the Metaverse to enable their

customers to communicate, shop, watch movies, and

attend concerts, as well as most things they are

accustomed to doing in the real world. How the

Metaverse will interact with the real world in the

future is still to be seen (The Economist, 2021), and

so are the business and technical specifications, as

they vary widely in this initial stage when brands are

in a test-and-learn situation (Balis, 2022). Experts are

recommending brands enter the Metaverse by

selecting target audiences, focusing on their current

behaviors and trends, conducting an updated

competitive analysis of metaverse adoption, finding

natural extensions to their current offering, and

identifying the best opportunity to successfully define

the brand's user interface and integrate their brand

into the Metaverse (Balis, 2022). However, while

most companies are focused on the potential

opportunities and rewards of the Metaverse, risk

should also be a focal point. To extend their brands

into the Metaverse, companies need to adopt

comprehensive security policies, processes, and

technologies that account for safe data collection,

processing, transmission, and management (Figure

1), covering the physical and digital domains,

protecting customers' personal data, increasing risk

detection, and ensuring compliance with new

regulations (Arbanas et al., 2022).

Figure 1: Physical and Digital Domains of the Metaverse.

2.2 Addressing the Metaverse Risks

The Metaverse presents new challenges to brands,

and novel risks, as their likelihood and impact are

challenging to quantify at this stage (Kaplan et al.,

2020). However, companies must initiate and

maintain constant documentation of the potential

risks the Metaverse could present to be better

prepared with a mitigation plan. A Risk Assessment

(see Appendix A) can help record each brand's

potential risks, estimate their likelihood and impact

on the brand, and hence, aid in the prioritization and

allocation of resources to mitigate these risks per their

"total rating/score" based on the combination of each

risk's likelihood and impact. Considering the risk

assessment, Internal Risks (Jesus et al. 2022) could be

argued to be the most prominent in the Metaverse, as

most challenges could be encountered within its

boundaries. Furthermore, three main metaverse risks

stand out, and they center around cybersecurity

involving its main components, the technology,

which is new and evolving; the people using the

Metaverse, which is now early adopters and learning

as it evolves and processes that are not yet regulated,

standardized, or advanced enough (Deloitte, 2022).

Cybercriminals motivated by the potential of profit

are the main actors in the most prominent risks: the

potential lack of safety in Metaverse spaces, loss of

personal data, and cyber-attacks.

2.3 Security Practices in the Metaverse

Even large companies in the Metaverse continue to

consider safety and privacy as a compliance item or

afterthought (Anderson and Rainie., 2022). Spaces

providing users with the benefits of interaction with

the brand and other customers will need to be safe and

earn users' trust (Smaili and Rancourt-Raymond,

2022). Gaining safety and trust is imperative as the

Metaverse will become an extension of the best and

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108

the worst aspects of people's lives with more

complete and immersive experiences. Experts have

noted the potential threat of metaverse spaces to

exacerbate the prevalence of discrimination,

harassment, bullying, hate, and crime (Anderson and

Rainie, 2022). Failing to provide safe virtual spaces

may result in the loss of customers' adoption of brand

extension spaces (Fares, 2022). In order to mitigate this

risk, legislation must safeguard users by establishing

strict laws that converge the real world and the

Metaverse. In turn, the laws will need to protect the

users' safety and the virtual avatars created by users

(Sethi, 2022). Policing in the Metaverse: What Law

Enforcement Needs to Know, a Europol report, focuses

on future crimes fueled by new technology. It is

intended to inform law enforcement agencies and

policymakers on the Metaverse and the need to extend

and modernize policing tactics. Enforcing entities have

begun to enter the Metaverse to protect users. The

INTERPOL has also acted by designing a virtual

experience intended for law enforcement with hands-

on training (Europol, 2022). To support law

enforcement efforts, brands must integrate content

moderation into their process and technology to

identify and address content and user behavior that

violates their user terms (Europol, 2022). Safety is a

considerable risk. A Risk Matrix can be used by

Cybersecurity Managers to make strategic security

decisions which can be observed in Appendix A, which

calls for attention and dedication of resources.

3 CYBERSECURITY

STRATEGIES IN IMMERSIVE

TECHNOLOGY

In this section, we address Cybersecurity

considerations around immersive technology and the

Metaverse, including personal data and the emerging

cyber-attack landscape.

3.1 Protecting Personal Data

While the metaverse spaces pose a major risk, the

personal data collected and its use carries meaningful

risk as well, Appendix A. Brands can benefit from the

vast data generated by the metaverse users and

behaviors, as it can be utilized to enhance the

development of robots and problem-solving (Sun et

al., 2022), 20 minutes of a VR experience can gather

2 million distinct data elements, including the way a

user breathes, walks, moves or stares, which further

enables targeted marketing (Kramer, 2022).

However, such extensive information raises ethical

concerns surrounding the collection, management,

and utilization of user data within the Metaverse

(Anderson and Rainie, 2022). Developers must

receive prompt guidance to develop metaverse

experiences that protect user privacy. This is a

difficult challenge due to the wide range of existing

technical configurations of each Metaverse, the lack

of unified standards (Kumar, 2022), and the

increasing interest from attackers to obtain sensitive

user data. Data-related attacks will increase as the

Metaverse evolves and more data collection methods

are developed (Sun et al., 2022). This ties into new

privacy concerns that have been raised after the

worrying discovery that users overwhelmingly favor

mirroring their real-life selves in this virtual

environment (Nair et al., 2022). Physical

characteristics, such as height, eyesight and physical

fitness, and personal characteristics, including

gender, age, ethnicity and even disability status, have

been provably inferred in such a way (Nair et al.,

2022). Users are typically unaware of the true extent

of the amount of personal information they are giving

away by doing this and are also unaware of its value

to potential attackers. For example, such information

can be sold to companies employing targeted

marketing and advertising. Therefore, companies

utilizing this technology should take on the

responsibility of communicating to their users the

consequences of revealing potentially sensitive

information where possible.

Legislation, industries, and brands must work

together to protect metaverse user data. The vast

amounts of user data and its management require

methodical planning that accounts for companies'

data gathering, storage, and utilization while

maintaining users’ confidentiality in a secure

location. Data gathering must be limited to necessary

data and curated to ensure accuracy (whether

collected by devices or provided by users) and

include parameters that comply with user data

protections (Sun et al., 2022), e.g., EU’S GDPR or the

California Consumer Privacy Act. Brands that collect

the user data must be anonymized to ensure users

cannot be identified (Smaili and Rancourt-Raymond,

2022) and store it in decentralized server structures to

avoid massive data leaks or tampering from a single

data repository (Sun et al., 2022).

3.2 Emerging Cyber Attack Landscape

Overlapping with the risks to metaverse space safety

and the looming threats to user data is the broad

subject of cyber-attacks. Much like in the evolution

Exploring Risks in the Metaverse in an Immersive Digital Economy

109

of the internet, as the Metaverse continues to develop,

it will create various opportunities for criminals

(Europol, 2022), and the safeguards and technology

architecture needed to avoid negative impact are not

yet in place (Anderson and Rainie, 2022). Policing

the Metaverse will be a monumental task (Europol,

2022). Like other nascent technology, the Metaverse

can provide new attack vectors which criminals can

exploit. Bad actors can access weaknesses in the

evolving Metaverse (Europol, 2022). Users immersed

in their metaverse devices will be exposed to exploits

through the control of their virtual reality. An XR

experience can lead to an attacker influencing users

in the real world by manipulating their virtual

environment. Users can be victims of several types of

attacks, e.g., 'Human Joystick Attacks' by being

deceived into moving to unintended physical

locations, a 'Chaperone Attack' in which the users'

safety boundaries are altered, or an 'Overlay Attack'

giving an attacker control of the users' virtual

environment. (Europol, 2022).

With threats such as these, a significant

responsibility will need to be addressed by the

companies building the metaverse platforms

(Europol, 2022). Developers need to consider

potential cyber-attacks when designing security

protocols and firewalls of metaverse platforms. One

of the features needed to help avoid hackers from

accessing entire networks will be the isolation of

incidents since the device and developers will need to

leverage edge computing to distribute the processing

of data across a range of data centers, servers, and

devices (Sun et al., 2022). Furthermore, development

for the Metaverse should include integrating antivirus

software and novel machine-learning techniques to

detect and prevent attacks and, more importantly, to

forecast attacks by analyzing metaverse data trends

based on the User Generated Content collected (Sethi,

2022). In addition, the builders of the platforms will

need to establish a process to relay law enforcement

organizations with prompt and accurate information

to protect systems, service providers, and users

(Europol, 2022). Therefore, law enforcement entities

around the world should prepare to access the

information needed and support the impending needs

and challenges of the Metaverse.

4 EMERGING CONCEPTS IN

THE METAVERSE

In this section, we explore contemporary factors and

issues surrounding immersive technology and the

Metaverse. We focus on how this technology impacts

modern warfare, information security and privacy,

economic issues, and prospects.

4.1 Cybersecurity and Privacy

The Metaverse presents a wide range of challenges; an

important one is client vulnerabilities with the

hardware and software associated with the VR and AR

headsets which can be an attack vector for malicious

hackers. The impact ranges from location spoofing to

devise manipulation, which can cause identity theft and

a spiral of criminal activity in the Metaverse under

someone else's identity (Dunnett et al., 2022).

4.2 Modern Warfare

The Metaverse can present new horizons for Modern

Warfare and how the battlefield will change and adapt

to technology. There is a theory that with the wonders

of the Metaverse, conflict and competition between

competing countries will present themselves with

future expansion and the immersive university with

goals of domination for land and space (Baughman,

2022). One of the most successful use cases of the

Metaverse is that it will be adopted the fastest by the

military for training experiences, particularly

dangerous and high intensity. This method of military

training does have limitations from the traditional

physical approach but does have enhanced scalability

through technology (Ooi et al., 2022).

4.3 Intelligent Healthcare Systems

While the Metaverse initially emerged as an

entertainment and social media platform, the extent to

which it can positively affect society is far-reaching.

Recent developments have suggested incorporating

Metaverse into the field of medical technology

alongside artificial intelligence (AI). Such an

approach could facilitate improvement in many areas

of AI-based healthcare, such as therapy and medical

image-guided disease diagnosis, by utilizing the

Metaverse to aid in the development, prototyping,

evaluation, regulation, and translation of such

practices (Wang et al., 2022). There is precedent for

the use of virtual environments in this way. By using

the Second Life platform, one of the precursors to the

Metaverse, a virtual environment was developed to

train users in nano-computed topography (CT)

(Mishra et al., 2012). CT images can be reconstructed

virtually and analyzed by using state-of-the-art AI

and machine learning algorithms (Litjens et al.,

2017). In this case, it is feasible for larger-scale

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collaborations between developers and healthcare

practitioners to drive forward advances in medical

imaging and AI technology in the virtual reality

space. Additionally, incorporating virtual interactions

into the healthcare sector only adds to the

omnichannel strategy, which is becoming

increasingly popular and robust in the post-pandemic

landscape. Understandably, there are reservations

about the validity of such an approach. In response to

these concerns, guidance has been issued to assess the

credibility of computational modeling in accordance

with the Food and Drug Administration in the US.

4.4 The Role of Blockchains

We can also see the introduction of the virtual world

independent currency that can be spent in the

Metaverse. This can integrate the cryptocurrency

movement with coins such as “decentraland”

(MANA), the digital property that uses the Ethereum

Blockchain, where the owners can make applications

and sell and purchase goods and services. The Sandbox

(SAND) is a game platform that works on a play-to-

earn (P2E) system utilizing Ethereum Blockchain. As

a decentralized platform that allows developers to own

space in the virtual gaming universe, Axie Infinity

(AXS) is a P2E game that works on the Blockchain

Ethereum. This game has collectible creatures that you

can keep as pets. The game hosts a player's own

economy (Akkus et al., 2022). There can also be many

positive economic changes presented with the rise of

virtual currency, such as a fairer, more transparent

financial system moving away from traditional

banking. This works by eliminating third-party

institutions that we have to put our trust in for every

transaction we make (Yu et al., 2018).

With immersive technology providing a

landscape for words other than ours, opportunities are

demonstrated around owning property and digital real

estate inside those worlds. Despite the excitement this

causes for investors and the younger generation

attempting to get on the property ladder, there are

legal issues to address with owning real estate in the

Metaverse. These legal issues include defining and

understanding property ownership, how to establish

and transfer ownership rights for value (potentially

resolved through Blockchain and Smart Contracts),

how transparent we should be on user identities with

their usage, and how will disputes over the contract

be determined (Radhakrishna, 2022). The Metaverse

presents the opportunity for decentralized virtual

worlds in the future. This can be provided immersive

3D virtual events, conferences, and experiences from

a singular room. This highlights a potential solution

to the 2023 economic crisis, for example. In this

housing crisis, in the innovation of this technology,

the future could be people in a small property in the

physical world. This means businesses do not need to

invest in large corporate buildings but can host their

meetings, teaching, and office work using immersive

reality (George et al., 2021).

The development of the Metaverse could also

greatly accelerate the process of asset tokenization.

This process is achieved by securitizing non-traded or

tradable assets using blockchain technology to

enhance the liquidity of these physical assets, reduce

transaction costs and risks, accelerate settlement, etc.

(BNY Mellon, 2019). The Metaverse serves as a

suitable social environment to allow asset

tokenization to democratize illiquid assets and

investments, which can be real-life physical assets

(e.g., real estate, vehicles, commodities) or digital

assets such as images, films, recordings, etc. in the

virtual world. All assets are broken down into their

smallest units (i.e., ownership) and these can be

stored securely and circulated quickly in a metaverse

using blockchain technology. Hence, the Metaverse

is an ideal place to enable online and offline assets to

be placed in the same place in a flexible and trusted

manner, in a more diverse form for more complex

financial transactions. This will undoubtedly further

drive the financial industry to produce more reliable,

convenient, and customized financial derivatives,

financial instruments, portfolio products, etc. For

example, portfolios that combine equities and NFT

(non-fungible token) digital assets. This will

undoubtedly completely revolutionize the order,

appearance, and structure of the financial industry in

terms of security, credibility, circulation capacity,

cost reduction, and efficiency enhancement.

4.5 Digital Twins

In addition, the application of the Metaverse to the

digital twin, for example, will also contribute

significantly to the transformation of industry and

society. The digital twin is essentially an equivalent

mapping of the cyber world to the physical world and

can be seen as a digital mapping system of one or

more critical, interdependent equipment systems,

thus reflecting the full lifecycle process of the

corresponding physical equipment. One of the most

successful applications of the Cyber-Physical System

(CPS), CPS brings together computational, cyber,

and physical processes. By integrating and

collaborating the three technologies of Computation,

Communication, and Control, the overall system can

be sensed and dynamically controlled in real-time

Exploring Risks in the Metaverse in an Immersive Digital Economy

111

through information transfer. The digital twin, as an

important part of the CPS and even the entire

industrial Metaverse, has taken society from "Data"

monitoring to "Model" control and gradually to

"Meta-Model" management. This has led to

applications such as forecasting and automated

operations based on artificial intelligence technology

(Ni et al., 2021). This will undoubtedly lead to

disruptive changes in many industries.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The Metaverse, as an extension of brands in

advertising, has excellent potential to engage users in

the future, helping users create unique experiences

beyond the real world. Brands around the globe see

an opportunity for the metaverse spaces to provide a

fuller and more immersive brand experience that

complements their real-world offering. These

immersive experiences will allow customers to

interact with their brands and other customers.

Consumers, in turn, are eager to try new technology

and marketing experiences. However, brands will be

increasingly met with challenges, including

cybersecurity, threats to customer trust, brand

perception, and digital rights management. While

newly identified metaverse risks are common across

industries, brands will need to establish their

priorities in assessing their unique metaverse risk-

mitigation responsibility by identifying risks and

assessing their importance, with special attention to

security, data privacy, guidelines and monitoring,

legislation, controlling, and reporting. This will need

to be an ongoing process as the metaverse risks will

continue to evolve and change as the technology

advances, creating the need for innovative and

scalable legal, regulatory, and technical solutions.

Critical risks identified through the use of a Risk

Assessment document indicate the critical need to

address potential lack of safety in metaverse spaces,

loss of personal data, and cyber-attacks. To support

law enforcement efforts, brands must integrate

content moderation into their process and technology

to identify and address content and user behavior that

violates user terms. It will require a two-fold

approach to providing solutions to the metaverse

risks. The legislation will need to be established with

the creation of international and global authority and

standards to regulate the Metaverse, in addition to

companies establishing adequate programs to

mitigate and respond to metaverse risks. The new

legislation must safeguard users by establishing strict

laws that converge the real world and the Metaverse.

The laws will need to protect the users' safety and the

virtual avatars created by users. Developers will need

to aim at accounting for the unforeseen risks that will

come with the expansion and increasing complexity

of the Metaverse. This paper has also provided

recommendations to address and mitigate mainstream

and future challenges in the Metaverse, particularly

on Cybersecurity, Modern Warfare, Economical

Transformation and Cryptocurrency.

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APPENDIX A

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