About 65% of Employees in Saudi Arabia Believe in Metaverse’s Potential

Research by Kaspersky has revealed that a significant proportion of workers in Saudi Arabia are optimistic about the potential of the metaverse to revolutionize various industries.

Around 64.8% of employees believe that it represents the future of the internet. Only a small minority (19.5%) are skeptical and see it as a passing trend. Many respondents reported that their companies are already involved in metaverse-related projects (32.3%) or have plans to launch such projects in the future (42.5%). However, the metaverse also poses new cybersecurity challenges that must be addressed.

Experts from Kaspersky have warned about the potential cyber risks associated with the emergence of new phenomena such as the metaverse. They caution that VR headsets could be vulnerable to attack, which could lead to content manipulation.

Additionally, virtual assets earned in the metaverse may be at risk of theft, and entire virtual economies could be compromised. There are also growing privacy concerns as extensive data is collected about users’ actions, preferences, and behaviors, which could be exploited for identity theft or surveillance. Protecting individuals’ privacy in such a vast and interconnected digital space is a significant challenge that will require cybersecurity strategies to adapt to address emerging threats and vulnerabilities as the metaverse continues to evolve.

In this regard, KasperskyOS Business Development Lead Victor Ivanovsky said: “When we discuss linking the metaverse and real-world objects and devices, technically, we talk about the rising importance & new roles of IoT in the meta world. Hence, the ‘Internet-of-Everything’ attractiveness for global cybercrime also increases.”

In March, Kaspersky found that 77% of the UAE residents think the NFTs can provide a new and advanced way to trade digital assets, whereas 72% believe it can guarantee the uniqueness of digital assets and contribute to the promotion of the concept of intellectual property.