Recently, the Metaverse has been a fashionable word in the world of technology. Imagine being at a concert as if it were real or visiting your favorite museum, all with the comfort of being at home.
This and much more is what you want to achieve with this alternative reality, but like any new technology, its security can be violated. In this article, we will discuss the risks to which we can be exposed and how to avoid them.
The Metaverse is a virtual world where using some devices, such as virtual reality glasses and other optional accessories, makes us think that we are inside it and allows us to act with the surrounding environment.
Virtual reality glasses or helmets allow us to visualize through them images or a succession of images created by a computer, allowing us to visualize a virtual world.
These virtual worlds have been around for quite some time, with the concept appearing in 1992 due to American writer Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash. Another example of a precursor to the Metaverse is Mark Zuckerberg, the entrepreneur who created and founded the social network Facebook and bought the company Oculus, which specializes in virtual reality.
Many companies, especially technology companies, have focused on the Metaverse and use it to advise clients or meet with them at events in this virtual world.
It is not solely intended as a space for playing video games in imaginary universes. It is a new formula for experimenting, interacting, buying, and learning in multiple ways.
What does the Metaverse offer us?
The idea of the Metaverse is to bring people closer to the cybernetic world in a more sensory way, making them experience daily activities such as traveling the world more humanly.
As mentioned, the Metaverse is used for many purposes and has many benefits. Next, we will detail some fields.
Social activities: Conversing with other users through audio and video calls and participating in chats and meetings can be done in the Metaverse.
Education: Learning activities and educational activities can benefit from immersion.
Marketing: Advertising campaigns in the Metaverse could have their own spaces and great relevance in the future.
Commerce: Visit virtual stores, interact with products, and buy or sell using your virtual wallets, which would be associated with your digital identity.
Games: Virtual reality games are considered the most feasible route for users to access the world of the Metaverse.
Leisure and travel: Attendance at concerts, museums, and cities virtually. Before buying a ticket or a trip as we did before, now you can enjoy the trips with people not close to you.
Health: Practicing an operation in an operating room without risks and discovering what an ICU is like or how to prepare to work in one of them.
Military field: The army can train and do drills in the most realistic way possible for the battlefield, without putting anyone at risk, in addition to doing simulations with planes, tanks, and military material to help with training.
Psychological field: The main benefit of the Metaverse in psychology is to help patients recreate situations, such as the fear of traveling by plane or the panic of speaking in public.
What risks can you find in the Metaverse?
Despite having many benefits, as we have been seeing, it also has a series of interesting risks. Next, we are going to show some dangers and threats that we face in the Metaverse:
Users spend more time and energy in the Metaverse than in the real world. This can create psychological and addiction problems and interfere with disconnection practices.
In virtual spaces, since they are not perceived as something real, there is a greater tendency not to take responsibility for actions.
Entering the Metaverse requires devices, such as virtual reality glasses, controllers, microphones, and headphones, which can be vulnerable to hacking.
Theft of data and personal information and virtual wallets. In this new virtual world, attacks by cybercriminals will increase to hack and get all kinds of information and virtual currencies for their benefit. When losing this data or information, such as an address, ID, age, bank details or social network accounts, etc., there is a greater risk of blackmail or extortion by cybercriminals.
Another danger that it has is the increase in cases of harassment due to its immersive and realistic nature, so the use of this technology by minors should be limited and supervised for an educational, fun, and responsible experience since they may be at risk of sexual abuse, grooming and radicalization among others.
Physical hazards, such as using the Metaverse in such an immersive and immersive way of text, voice, and visuals in the environment, can create accidents that can have serious consequences.
How to protect yourself from these risks?
Limit the information we share in the Metaverse, such as personal or private data, being able, in many cases, to resort to anonymity to protect ourselves from harassment and extortion cases with confidential information.
To reduce the physical dangers we are exposed to when entering the Metaverse, we must use virtual reality equipment in a large space free of objects that hinder movement or displacement, thus avoiding falls or blows.
Keeping our virtual reality devices updated and using applications from official stores will reduce the possibility of suffering computer attacks.
Controlling the time these technologies are used will help users not to be psychologically affected, thus reducing the risk of creating dependency on these activities.
Once we enter the Metaverse, we must remember that all spaces have an established code of conduct, which is usually similar to that of daily life in the offline world.
