Cyber Resilience & Security in the Age of the Metaverse
The Editors of the Journal of Intelligence, Conflict, and Warfare have released the Call for Papers for a forthcoming Special Issue on the theme of “Cyber Resilience & Security in the Age of the Metaverse” (Volume 5, Issue 2, November 2022). This special issue will be overseen by Professor Julian Richards, Director of the Buckingham University Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS), and Dr. Bill Kappis, Deputy Director of BUCSIS.
In the era of Web 3.0 (Lee, 2022), examining our social cyber resilience is becoming increasingly important. As corporations continue to invest in these 3-dimensional virtual spaces, the metaverse/metaverses, exploring the security, financial, legal, and social implications of these spaces can help users navigate this new world. Zhao et al. (2022) posit that “the boundary between the metaverse and [virtual reality] VR, augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) appears to be hazy” and might be better understood as a “super virtual-reality ecosystem based on the Internet… composed of inter-disciplinary technologies.” These interdisciplinary technologies can include social settings, banking systems, legal firms, shopping centers, gaming platforms and more. With the metaverse market projected to grow to nearly $800bn by 2024, it is no surprise that individuals and corporate entities are flocking to this new space (Marathe, 2022).
As this market grows, it raises the issue of cyber resilience at the individual, corporate, and government levels. The COVID-19 pandemic presented not only challenges for society but also opportunities for malicious cyber actors to carry out “fast cyberattacks… at a global level, targeting individuals, corporations, and governments, all at once” (Stavrou, 2022). While phishing attacks increased more than 600% during the pandemic, the cost of increased cyber-attacks amounted to more than £11 million in the United Kingdom alone (Stavrou, 2022).
This Special Issue is an opportunity for scholars and practitioners in the private sector, and government to advance our understanding of these issues. Questions surrounding how to protect assets and privacy and ensure security and safety within the metaverse are of the utmost interest.
The Editors welcome submissions that investigate:
- What is cyber situational awareness
- How to cultivate critical thinking in a cyber context
- What might a cybersecurity culture be
- How we can promote societal cyber resilience
- The impact of the metaverse on individuals, corporations, or governments
- The intersection of finance, including digital currencies, the metaverse, and security
- The privacy and security considerations for individual’s data in the metaverse
- How can a decentralized space such as the metaverse be made secure and/or policed?
The JICW always welcomes papers and briefings true to its name which focus on:
- Critical perspectives on security
- Unconventional warfare involving non-state actors
- Information warfare
- Hybrid warfare
- Cyber warfare
- Asymmetric, compound, and irregular warfare
- Transnational crime
- Fifth generation warfare
- Net-centric warfare
- Extremism
- Identity and social conflict
- Insurgencies
- State v. state conflicts
- Intelligence analysis, failures, or modern challenges
Articles under 7000 words should be submitted by August 21, 2022, through our on-line editorial system: https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/jicw/user/register
Full information on types of submissions, manuscript format, and guidelines for submission can be found at https://journals.lib.sfu.ca/index.php/jicw/about/submissions
The JICW Editorial team will select papers that reflect high quality, relevance to contemporary security issues, and well-articulated arguments and counterarguments.
References
Lee, P. (2022, January 25). The coming battle over banking in the metaverse. Euromoney. https://www.euromoney.com/article/29mm3kud7jxztutnyrhmo/fintech/the-coming-battle-over-banking-in-the-metaverse
Marathe, I. (2022, April 5). Cybersecurity in the metaverse is like the Wild West, attorneys warn firms. BenefitsPRO. https://www.benefitspro.com/2022/04/05/cybersecurity-in-metaverse-like-the-wild-west-attorneys-warn-412-128557/?slreturn=20220328031546
Stavrou, E. (2020). Back to basics: Towards building societal resilience against a cyber pandemic. Journal on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (JSCI), 18(7), 73-80.
Zhao, R., Zhang, Y., Zhu, Y., Lan, R., & Hua, Z. (2022). Metaverse: Security and privacy concerns. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2203.03854