Privacy violations, security breaches and other threats of Web3 and the metaverse

Web3 and the metaverse present several unique challenges from security and privacy standpoints. This paper looks at key features of these technological innovations from privacy and security angles and discusses how they are vulnerable to various types of breaches, bugs and attacks as well as other types of scams, frauds, and deceits. It offers a detailed description of technological environment and institutional level factors that can lead to increased privacy violations and security breaches in Web3 and the metaverse. The paper will discuss how newness, novelty and complexity of technologies involved and weak architectural security of Web3, and the metaverse are likely to provide a fruitful environment for cybercriminals and other perpetrators. On the regulatory front, it points out that privacy and security laws of the Web2 era are not sufficient to deal with the environments of Web3 and the metaverse. The paper also argues that the preparedness to provide security and privacy in the metaverse's multidimensional and multi-sensory environment is currently lacking at the industry level. It analyzes the level and nature of the impacts of privacy violations and security breaches on consumers and victims in the Web 3 and the metaverse environments. It gives special consideration to the multisensory environment of the metaverse which can lead to more adverse impacts on users and victims in case of privacy violations and security breaches. The paper also demonstrates how security breaches in Web3 and the metaverse are likely to lead to immediate harms to victims. It promotes an understanding of how blockchain, which is the key building block of Web 3 and the metaverse, can be vulnerable under certain conditions. The paper also delves into cyberattacks and other malicious behaviors targeting crypto-assets such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are key enabling technologies of Web3 and the metaverse economies. It provides guidelines and suggestions for consumers, businesses, industries and nations to enhance security of Web3 and the metaverse.