Bob Gourley, "The Metaverse: Infinite attack surface and boundless risk"

The Metaverse is coming. What is the Metaverse? A massive,
infinitely scalable, shared virtual world where land, buildings,
bots, avatars and other property can be bought sold and persist.
Think of it as the future convergence of all of today's virtual
worlds, interconnected with a single settlement layer for totally
interoperable transactions.

The Metaverse will be accessible by billions via any web browser,
mobile device or virtual reality system. All indications are that
the metaverse is destined to become a driving force in how humanity
interacts with each other. It will influence education, healthcare,
government, commerce, and entertainment.

 

How big will the Metaverse be? One indicator is the recent
announcement by Mark Zuckerberg that he is shifting Facebook to be
a Metaverse company. With all the other major players in delivering
Metaverse capabilities today this will very quickly become a
trillion dollar market. It will also be an incredibly enticing
target for the criminal element.



The Metaverse needs the involvement of the security community in
ways few are conceptualizing today. This presentation will provide
security practitioners with foundational knowledge that will help
accelerate the contributions of security professionals to this
rapidly developing shared virtual space.