Visualization and Cybersecurity in the Metaverse: A Survey

The popularity of the Metaverse has rapidly increased in recent years. However, despite the attention, investment, and promise of the Metaverse, there are various cybersecurity issues that must be addressed before the Metaverse can truly be adopted in practice for serious applications. The realization of the Metaverse is envisioned by many as requiring the use of visualization technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). This visual aspect of the Metaverse will undoubtedly give rise to emerging cybersecurity threats that have not received much attention. As such, the purpose of this survey is to investigate cybersecurity threats faced by the Metaverse in relation to visualization technologies. Furthermore, this paper discusses existing work and open research directions on the development of countermeasures against such threats. As the Metaverse is a multidisciplinary topic, the intention of this work is to provide a background of the field to aid researchers in related areas.