According to Kaspersky research, the majority (61,3%) of employees surveyed in South Africa believe that the Metaverse is the future of the Internet and will revolutionise entire industries, with only a few sceptical of it and labelling it a passing trend (21,5%).
Many employees said their companies already have projects related to the Metaverse (18,8%) or have specific plans for such projects (50,8%). However, traversing to the Metaverse comes with new cybersecurity challenges.
The Metaverse is a virtual, interconnected universe that merges physical and digital realities. In it people can interact, socialise, work and engage in other activities through immersive technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality. The Metaverse is often envisioned as the next-generation Internet, blurring the boundaries between the online and offline worlds and offering limitless possibilities for social, economic, and entertainment experiences.
Kaspersky experts warn that new phenomena like the Metaverse bring cyber risks. VR headsets can be attacked to manipulate content, virtual assets earned in the Metaverse can be stolen, and whole virtual economies compromised. There are new privacy concerns as well: extensive data about users’ actions, preferences, and behaviours is collected which could be exploited for identity theft or surveillance. Protecting individuals’ privacy in such a vast and interconnected digital space is a significant challenge. As the Metaverse continues to evolve, cybersecurity strategies will need to adapt to address emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
“When we discuss linking the Metaverse and real-world objects and devices, technically we talk about the rising importance and new roles of IoT in the metaworld,” says Victor Ivanovsky, KasperskyOS business development lead. “Hence the attractiveness of the ‘Internet-of-Everything’ for global cybercrime increases as well. This is why IoT vendors should consider implementing a next generation cybersecurity approach on their devices. Kaspersky pioneers the Cyber Immune approach where devices are able to be designed and developed with innate, built-in protection that would make them virtually impossible to compromise. For instance, Kaspersky IoT Secure Gateway is designed to serve as a secure gateway for the Internet of Things in Industrial IoT networks, Smart Cities and other modern use cases on the boundaries of the Metaverse.”