Microsoft has a warning about working in the metaverse

You’re probably familiar with the online dangers that you could come across while working from home on your own computer or one provided by your employer. Spam, malware, adware, and viruses are just some things to think about. With the future of the workplace now possibly heading into the online metaverse, these are all dangers that could still come up for workers — and Microsoft has a warning about it.

In a recent post, Charlie Bell, the executive vice president for security, compliance, identity, and management at Microsoft, talked about the cornerstones for securing work in the metaverse. Bell believes that with the metaverse, the security stakes will be higher than imagined, and lists ways that companies and the major players in the space can stay safe when bringing workers online to the virtual metaverse. More importantly, though, he also touched on how anyone can easily be impersonated in the metaverse.

A vision of Meta's metaverse in the work setting features a man seated at a desk while people walk by in the virtual realm. — Meta

“Fraud and phishing attacks targeting your identity could come from a familiar face – literally – like an avatar who impersonates your co-worker, instead of a misleading domain name or email address. These types of threats could be deal-breakers for enterprises if we don’t act now,” explained Bell.

So, how can this security and trust be accomplished? According to Bell, it’ll have to do a lot with information sharing and collaboration on metaverse technologies. It also has to do with adopting multi-factor authentication and password-free authentication in metaverse platforms. Even giving IT admins a console to control the experiences is something that Microsoft and Bell suggest.

According to Bell, the security of work in the metaverse has to come from the apps within, and there’s only “one chance” to establish specific security principles that can create trust and peace of mind for metaverse experiences while it’s still new. “The security community must work together to build a foundation to safely work, shop, and play,” said Bell.

Transparency is the final way of securing the metaverse for everyone. Bell hopes that those who hold leadership positions in the space will be prepared to answer questions from security experts about terms of service, encryption, and vulnerability reporting. “Let’s make the lessons we’ve learned about identity, transparency, and the security community’s powerful collaboration our top ideals to enable this next wave of technology to reach its full potential,” said Bell.

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