The Impact of Social Engineering Attacks on the Metaverse Platform

The Metaverse environment is the fastest-growing area of interest for augmented and virtual reality space to converge and provide interactive learning and social cohesion. However, existing vulnerabilities in the metaverse environment are susceptible to various forms of social engineering exploits, manipulations, and authentication attacks, leading to psychological and emotional impacts on victims. Thus, the effect of social engineering attacks in the metaverse can have serious implications on social media users' well-being and the digital ecosystem. The paper aims to explore the impact of social engineering attacks on the Metaverse platform to detect vulnerabilities and evaluate their psychological implications for users. The contribution of the paper is threefold. First, the existing metaverse platform is explored to identify the vulnerable spots and understand the attack methods and their impact on victims. Secondly, a social engineering attack is implemented to exploit the vulnerabilities using Kali Linux tools in a virtual environment to identify the human vulnerabilities and flaws on the platform that allow the compromise in security. Finally, control mechanisms were recommended to improve security in the Metaverse platform. The results indicate that the Metaverse device can be secure when accurate control mechanisms are in place to improve device and user accessibility security.