The Interpol on Thursday unveiled the first-ever ‘metaverse’ specifically designed for law enforcement worldwide, at its ongoing 90th General Assembly in Delhi.
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The Interpol metaverse allows the registered users to take a virtual tour of its general secretariat headquarters in France’s Lyon, interact with other officers via their avatars, and even take training courses in forensic investigation and other policing skills, it said.
The facility is being provided through the global police organisation’s secure cloud. During an interactive session, General Assembly delegates attending the event were able to tour the Lyon building using virtual reality headsets.
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“For many, the metaverse seems to herald an abstract future, but the issues it raises are those that have always motivated Interpol — supporting our member countries to fight crime and making the world, virtual or not, safer for those who inhabit it,” said Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock.
In a follow-up panel discussion, the Interpol also announced the creation of an expert group on the metaverse to represent the concerns of law enforcement on the global stage and ensure that the new virtual world was secure by design.
During a live demonstration, experts from the Interpol Capacity Building and Training Directorate delivered a training course on travel document verification and passenger screening using its capabilities in a metaverse classroom. “Students were then teleported to an airport where they were able to apply their newly-acquired skills at a virtual border point,” said the Interpol.
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The Interpol said criminals were already starting to exploit the virtual world, adding: “The World Economic Forum, which has partnered with Interpol, Meta, Microsoft and others in an initiative to define and govern the metaverse, has warned that social engineering scams, violent extremism and misinformation could be particular challenges.”
As the number of metaverse users would grow and the technology further developed, the list of possible crimes was likely to expand to potentially include crimes against children, data theft, money laundering, financial fraud, counterfeiting, ransomware, phishing, and sexual assault and harassment. For law enforcement, the Interpol said, some of the threats were likely to present significant challenges, as not all the acts deemed criminal in the physical world were treated as crimes when committed in the virtual world.
“By identifying these risks from the outset, we can work with stakeholders to shape the necessary governance frameworks and cut off future criminal markets before they are fully formed,” said Madan Oberoi, the Interpol’s Executive Director of Technology and Innovation. He said the metaverse had the potential to transform every aspect of daily lives with enormous implications for law enforcement.