eprintid: 10197259
rev_number: 6
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/19/72/59
datestamp: 2024-09-19 12:15:26
lastmod: 2024-09-19 12:15:26
status_changed: 2024-09-19 12:15:26
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Baldry, Moya Kate
creators_name: Happa, Jassim
creators_name: Steed, Anthony
creators_name: Smith, Simon
creators_name: Glencross, Mashhuda
title: From Embodied Abuse to Mass Disruption: Generative, Inter-Reality Threats in Social, Mixed-Reality Platforms
ispublished: inpress
divisions: UCL
divisions: B04
divisions: F48
note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
abstract: Extended Reality (XR) platforms can expose users to novel attacks including embodied abuse and/or AI attacks-at-scale. The expanded attack surfaces of XR technologies may expose users of shared online platforms to psychological/social and physiological harms via embodied interactions with potentially millions of other humans or artificial humans, causing what we define as an inter-reality attack. The past twenty years have demonstrated how social and other harms (e.g. bullying, assault and stalking) can and do shift to digital social media and gaming platforms. XR technologies becoming more mainstream has led to investigations of ethical and technical consequences of these expanded input surfaces. However, there is limited literature that investigates social attacks, particularly toward vulnerable communities, and how AI technologies may accelerate generative attacks-at-scale. This paper employs human-centred research methods and a harms-centred Cybersecurity framework to co-design a testbed of socio-technical attack scenarios in XR social gaming platforms. It uses speculative fiction to further extrapolate how these could reach attacks-at-scale by applying generative AI techniques. It develops an Inter-Reality Threat Model to outline how actions in virtual environments can impact on the real-world. As AI capability continues to rapidly develop, this paper articulates the urgent need to consider a future where XR-AI attacks-at-scale could become commonplace.
date: 2024-09-17
date_type: published
publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3696015
oa_status: green
full_text_type: other
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 2313220
doi: 10.1145/3696015
lyricists_name: Steed, Anthony
lyricists_id: ASTEE91
actors_name: Flynn, Bernadette
actors_id: BFFLY94
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Digital Threats: Research and Practice
issn: 2576-5337
citation:        Baldry, Moya Kate;    Happa, Jassim;    Steed, Anthony;    Smith, Simon;    Glencross, Mashhuda;      (2024)    From Embodied Abuse to Mass Disruption: Generative, Inter-Reality Threats in Social, Mixed-Reality Platforms.                   Digital Threats: Research and Practice        10.1145/3696015 <https://doi.org/10.1145/3696015>.    (In press).    Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10197259/1/3696015.pdf