Cybersecurity in the Metaverse: Challenges and Approaches

A network of 3D virtual worlds centered on social interaction is known as a metaverse. It is frequently characterized as a hypothetical version of the Internet as a single, worldwide virtual environment in science fiction and futuristic literature, made possible by the usage of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headgear. The basic blocks of the metaverse's architecture are mostly already in advanced stages of development. On the other hand, many others are still several years away from being useful. We begin by examining its structures before moving on to the ingenious protection and security challenges brought up by this new viewpoint. The goal is to layout the ground for an insightful discussion about user privacy, integrity, and authentication in the metaverse, as well as countermeasures and security perspectives with humans in and out of the loop. Finally, we highlight some of the broad yet recurring effects on a variety of settings in terms of data explosion and exploitation, distributed denial of service, device vulnerability, and polarization and radicalization in a singleton world.