Interpol, the international organization for police cooperation, has just launched a dedicated metaverse for police around the world, as part of an effort to train its members for future interventions in the virtual world. According to the organization, its new metaverse should allow police officers to share knowledge and be trained in digital investigations.
Criminal activities
But beyond this training effort, Interpol has also created a group of experts on the metaverse in order to take stock of these new virtual worlds. “Criminals are already beginning to exploit” these universes, the organization has warned. A trend that should continue as the number of users increases and technology develops.
With a potential list of abuses that could be very long: “crimes against children, data theft, money laundering, financial fraud, counterfeiting, ransomware, phishing as well as assault and harassment sexual,” detailed Interpol. For the police, these attacks committed on the metaverse therefore represent an important legal issue, because all the attacks criminalized in the physical world are not necessarily “considered as crimes when they are committed in a virtual world”, underlines Interpol.
The beginnings of metaverses
Metaverses are indeed only in their infancy. But the big technology companies are already striving to be players in this new ecosystem, by manufacturing headsets or developing software, content and virtual reality environments. Beyond gaming and social media, it’s a promising area for virtual conferencing in business, design work and retail, not to mention crime.
Gartner predicts that by 2027, 40% of large enterprises will use a combination of web3 and augmented reality tools in projects in the metaverse. “The metaverse has the potential to transform every aspect of our daily lives, with huge implications for policing,” said Madan Oberoi, Interpol’s executive director for technology and innovation. “But for the police to understand the metaverse, we have to experience it,” he added.
New Trends in Cybercrime
The organization released its Global Crime Trends Report last week, which shows that 70% of police officers in its 195 member countries expect ransomware and phishing attacks to increase over the next three to next five years.
Law enforcement agencies are also concerned about “financial crime as a service”, such as digital money laundering tools, but also the compromise of business emails, CEO impersonation fraud, online scams and investment fraud.
Source: “ZDNet.com”