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Cybersecurity researchers help protect people in immersive virtual reality


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About 2 million people connect to virtual reality headsets each month by 2020. Virtual reality, or VR, industry revenue is expected to grow from $12 billion to $100 billion over the next five years. In the race to develop the most popular VR apps and capture the most consumer needs, VR software companies and developers don’t always take measures to protect consumers. from being attacked. Usually, products are released while still being developed.

Professor Abe Baggili in the field of cybersecurity at LSU is one of the first in the world to study the security of immersive virtual reality systems, or X reality, and provide solutions. legislation for this rapidly growing industry to protect the users of these new products.

Baggili, professor in LSU’s Department of Computer Science and the Center for Computing & Technology.

His new research is published in Computer & Security.

Baggili and his cybersecurity students, including lead author Martin Vondráček, who is now a security researcher and PhD. student at Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic, tested a popular social and entertainment app XR mainly used by people to watch movies with others in a Virtual environment to see if they can get into the user’s headset and computer.

The researchers discovered that they could, and could, take over a user’s VR headset, look at their screen, turn on their microphone, and install a virus on their computer without them even knowing it. know well. When another user enters the virtual room and interacts with the unknowingly infected user, they become infected too much like how the virus spreads between people in reality.

In addition, researchers can enter virtual room use another device and go undetected and act like a virtual invisible Tom peeking.

“No one would expect an intruder to be invisible in their real living room, monitoring their activities and every move,” says Baggili. This intrusion can disturb people’s privacy. on a very personal level”.

Children and youth are attracting and using many of these virtual reality headsets and apps, which makes it even more important to ensure safety and security measures.

“VR and XR devices are collecting a lot of personal information such as the structure of the physical room you’re in as well as the movements of your eyes, hands, and body. This information can be used to cause you and your family physical, emotional and he said.

By hacking into VR headsets and cameras, researchers were able to disorient users, removing physical boundaries to make them walk into walls or fall down stairs in reality.

Fortunately, the VR app development company Baggili and his students tested in this paper accepted all of the recommendations the researchers made in the responsible disclosure. Developers and scientists can now use the tools researchers have developed to create safe VR software.

“The vulnerabilities we discovered could have been prevented. As part of our research, we implemented a number of analysis and attack tools, example exploits, and vulnerability signatures. We chose to publish them for free and open source software to improve the state of the art of vulnerability detection and prevention in VR,” said Vondráček.

Add Doa, virtual reality applications are being used in education, healthcare, critical infrastructure and military defense.

“This research is important for identifying security weaknesses in popular XR applications. We need lawmakers and organizations to know the potential harm it can cause and require companies to do so. developing these new technologies find the right balance between security, privacy, and safety, before Kavya Pearlman, founder and information security researcher at the nonprofit Standards Development Organization global profits, the XR Safety Initiative, or XRSI, said.

How to join the metaverse safely

“Be diligent and understand that new technology has both positive and negative consequences. Salespeople don’t always trust and use it like you are a scientist: experiment with everything, very positive. Review the technology you’re using and try to understand what they’re doing with your data,” says Baggili.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many platforms where users can educate themselves about these new technologies, and most of the information people see comes from companies selling VR products, which naturally doesn’t attract attention. consider potential privacy rights and Security Risks.

“We responded to this by bringing our research to the attention of the general public in the global media,” says Baggili.

More information:
M. Vondrek et al, Metaverse’s Rise of Immersive Virtual Reality Malware and Attack & Defense in the Room, Computer & Security (In 2022). DOI: 10.1016 / j.cose.2022.102923

Quote: Hacking the metaverse: Cybersecurity researchers help protect people in immersive virtual reality (2022, November 9) retrieved November 9, 2022 from https://techxplore.com/news /2022-11-hacking-metaverse-cybersecurity-people-immersive.html

This document is the subject for the collection of authors. Other than any fair dealing for personal study or research purposes, no part may be reproduced without written permission. The content provided is for informational purposes only.

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