Exploitation in Virtual Worlds An Overview

Virtual worlds are the next great information frontiers. Today’s primitive environments will quickly be replaced with more realistic versions of the real world (i.e., 3D Internet) for an enhanced user experience and a virtual environment that is tightly integrated with the real world. As with any environment, users can exploit it in both a positive and negative way. As usual, the bad guys are figuring out ways to exploit the synthetic world for personal gain. If we hope to exploit the information in virtual worlds to defeat our adversaries then it is time for us to make the investment to understand and utilize this environment for our benefit. This paper describes this evolving disruptive technology and proposes research that will ultimately assist us in understanding and influencing this information rich world.