Europe’s security recommendations for VWs

Spotted on Metaverse Law that

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) released an interesting position paper on some of the concerns associated with virtual worlds.

A summary of the position paper’s recommendations:

• Governments and policy making bodies:

1. An industrywide forum for sharing of info on security vulnerabilities
2. Fund work on clarifying legal issues around IP and personal info in VWs
3. Encourage independent dispute resolution for player-to-player issues
4. New financial procedures to prevent item theft using chargebacks
5. Investigate the issues around conflicts between legislation & common carrier status for VWs

• MMO/VW operators:

1. Deal with item duping, end-to-end secuity, and DOS attacks
2. Clear privacy policies
3. Charge a token returnable fee for for all ODR complaints (to prevent false complaints)
4. Improve user authentication
5. A standard set of governing documents and terms, built with user input
6. Provide bootable CD images for critical operations such as online banking

• Awareness and research

1. Run campaigns on account theft detection, how to handle bad behavior, in-world property risks, etc
2. Research future trends with security concenrs, such as content filtering, security and reliability of open world formats, etc