Interpol says metaverse opens new world of cybercrime
Global police agency Interpol said it was preparing for the risk that online immersive environments – “metaverses” – could create new types of cybercrime and allow existing crime to become rampant.
Interpol member states have raised concerns about the preparation for a potential metaverse crime, Interpol’s executive director for technology and innovation Madan Oberoi told Reuters.
“Some offenses may be new to this medium, some existing offenses will be enabled by the medium and taken to a new level,” he said.
Oberoi said phishing and scams may work differently when augmented reality and virtual reality are involved. He said that the issue of child safety is also a matter of concern.
Oberoi said virtual reality could also facilitate crime in the physical world.
“If a terrorist group wants to attack a physical location, they can use this location to plan and simulate and launch their exercises before attacking,” he said.
Earlier this month, EU law enforcement agency Europol said in a report that terrorist groups could use the virtual world for propaganda, recruitment and training in the future. The report states that users can also create virtual worlds with “extremist regulations”.
If the Metaverse environment records users’ conversations on the blockchain, “it could make it possible to follow everything based on one conversation with someone – providing valuable information for stalkers or extortionists,” Europol said. .
The metaverse became a tech buzzword in 2021, with companies and investors betting that virtual world environments would grow in popularity and mark a new stage in the evolution of the Internet. Facebook announced that it was changing its name to Meta in October 2021 to mark its shift toward this idea.
But so far, this vision shows little sign of being realized. Meta’s stock price fell on Thursday as investors expressed doubts about spending on the Metaverse bet.
Sales of blockchain-based assets representing virtual land and other digital assets have also fallen sharply after a period of frenzied growth last year.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
