Unclassified Information & Behavior Exploitation in Virtual Worlds An Overview Dr. Rita Bush and Kenneth Kisiel IARPA/ DTO Virtual worlds are the next great information frontiers. Today’s primitive environments will quickly be replaced with more realistic versions of the real world (i.e., 3D Internet) for an enhanced user experience and a virtual environment that is tightly integrated with the real world. As with any environment, users can exploit it in both a positive and negative way. As usual, the bad guys are figuring out ways to exploit the synthetic world for personal gain. If we hope to exploit the information in virtual worlds to defeat our adversaries then it is time for us to make the investment to understand and utilize this environment for our benefit. This paper describes this evolving disruptive technology and proposes research that will ultimately assist us in understanding and influencing this information rich world. Introduction- A Scenario relayed this new information back to the The small team of soldiers moved in a Intelligence Analysis Center and requested somewhat uncoordinated fashion towards the background information on the new recruit. southeast gate. Their intention is clear – they are going to try to break into the military base As I watched the team approach the gate, the but their motivation is still a mystery. This requested information appeared in floating course of events began a few hours ago when billboards (that only I could see) next to each the Recruiter approached one of the soldiers soldier. The information was not good. I have in a local hangout and asked if they wanted to once again been investigating kids who have have some fun while sticking it to Big been trying unsuccessfully for many months Brother. I know because I was there – as a fly to get into this base when I should have been on the wall. You see, I am actually in a virtual looking for actual terrorists. There has to be a world where I can be any shape or size. better way of telling them apart. However, this is both an advantage and a challenge. The Problem The virtual world is the next great frontier and I had been following the Recruiter through in some respects is still very much a Wild this virtual world for several weeks now and West environment. Unfortunately, what was finally able to catch him in the act of started out as a benign environment where soliciting a new recruit. It took some quick people would congregate to share information thinking and shape shifting but I was able to or explore fantasy worlds is now offering the follow the new recruit to a primitive training opportunity for religious/political extremists island and watched while he was given some to recruit, rehearse, transfer money, and rudimentary instructions. In the meantime, I ultimately engage in information warfare or 11/29/2007 Unclassified 1 Unclassified worse with impunity. The challenge that we with real world rules such as gravity, face is to be able to distinguish the fanatics topography, locomotion, real-time actions, from the average person looking for some and communication, although in many virtual simple enjoyment. Before we can formulate a worlds the real-world rules can be broken. solution, we need a better understanding of Communication has, until recently, been in the environment and activities that we are the form of text chat, but now real-time voice likely to encounter as these worlds expand communication using VOIP is available. This and become ever more realistic. type of virtual world is now most common in massively multiplayer online games. Active Virtual Worlds Worlds, There, Second Life— are not games, A virtual world1 is a fairly vague and per se, but more like virtual environments that inclusive term but can generally be divided can include gaming. Other examples include along a spectrum ranging from: Entropia Universe, The Sims Online, Red Light Center, Kaneva, Weblo. Examples of • Massively multiplayer online role- massively multiplayer online role-playing playing games (MMORPG) where the games include EverQuest, Ultima Online, user playing a specific character is a Lineage, World of Warcraft, or Guild Wars. main feature of the game. • Massively multiplayer online real- One characteristic of virtual worlds is life/rogue-like games (MMORLG), persistence; it is active and available 24 hours the user can edit and alter their avatar a day, seven days a week. This persistent at will, allowing them to play a more nature of virtual worlds will provide our dynamic role, or multiple roles. greatest challenge in the future. Virtual • Social virtual worlds, where the user is worlds are still at a very early development not playing a “game”, but rather, using stage, both technically and culturally. The the world for entertainment, business, user experience will dramatically improve as or socializing. commercial pressure continues to push the evolution of the technologies and virtual The earliest virtual worlds were not games but world features. generic virtual reality simulators. The first virtual worlds presented on the Internet were In addition to persistence, future virtual communities and chat rooms, some of which environments will include economic and evolved into Multi-User Domains (MUDs) community-based activities. In worlds such as and Multi-User Shared Habitats (MUSHes). Second Life and World of Warcraft, the They attempted to create sets of avatars for spaces are no longer just a place for virtual interaction. Community virtual worlds individuals to interact through computer- allowed access to the environment and mediated reality, but instead become encouraged creating buildings, art, and significant structures and mechanisms of structures (many did not include avatars). social order and cooperation within the real- world. In fact, citizens of Second Life are The world being computer-simulated capable of protesting the virtual laws of their typically appears similar to the real world, space to enact positive change (in one case, allowing individuals to have virtual property rights). 1 Virtual World is the common term for the current group of immersive environments. Other terms sometimes used, but with slightly different meanings, include virtual reality, metaverse, or simulated worlds. 11/29/2007 Unclassified 2 Unclassified We are now witnessing the evolution of • NASA World Wind, USGS fantasy virtual worlds into a virtual globe. A topographic maps and several satellite virtual globe is a 3D software model or and aerial image datasets, the first representation of the Earth or another world. popular virtual globe along with The first widely publicized Virtual Globe was Google Earth. Google Earth. A virtual globe provides the • Google Earth, satellite & aerial photos user with the ability to freely move around in dataset (including commercial the virtual environment by changing the DigitalGlobe images,) with viewing angle and position. Compared to a international road dataset, the first conventional globe, virtual globes have the popular virtual globe along with additional capability of representing many NASA World Wind. different views on the surface of the Earth. • Microsoft Windows Live Local These views may be of geographical features, Virtual Earth 3D, 3D interface to the man-made features such as roads and Windows Live Local maps and buildings or abstract representations of photos, runs inside Internet Explorer demographic quantities such as population. and Firefox. • ArcGIS Explorer a lightweight client Virtual globes may be used for study or for ArcGIS Server, supports WMS navigation (by connecting to a GPS device) and many other GIS file formats. and their design varies considerably according • Software MacKiev's 3D Weather to their purpose. Those wishing to portray a Globe & Atlas, 3D views based on the visually accurate representation of the Earth Blue Marble imagery, near-real-time often use satellite image servers and are cloud coverage and weather forecast capable not only of rotation but also zooming from CustomWeather, time zones, and sometimes horizon tilting. Very often day/night views. such virtual globes aim to provide as true a representation of the world as is possible with As well as the availability of satellite worldwide coverage up to a very detailed imagery, online public domain factual level. When this is the case the interface often databases such as the CIA World Factbook has the option of providing simplified have been incorporated into virtual globes. graphical overlays to highlight man-made Technical information, data and image features since these are not necessarily sources can also be overlayed for enhanced obvious from a photographic aerial view. The information content. other issue raised by such detail available is that of security with some governments The use of virtual globe software was widely having raised concerns about the ease of popularized by (and may have been first access to detailed views of sensitive locations described in) Neal Stephenson's 1992 science such as airports and military bases. fiction novel Snow Crash. In the metaverse in Snow Crash there is a piece of software called As more and more high-resolution satellite Earth (similar to Google's), made by the imagery and aerial photography become Central Intelligence Corporation. The CIC accessible for free, many of the latest online uses their virtual globe as a user interface for virtual globes are built to fetch and display keeping track of all their geospatial data, these images. Some commercial examples including maps, architectural plans, weather include: data, and data from real-time satellite surveillance. Fiction is truly becoming reality. 11/29/2007 Unclassified 3 Unclassified Virtual People Virtual Activities What makes virtual worlds interesting is that Having a presence in a virtual world allows a the user can explore and take part in single or user to engage in a number of activities that group activities through an virtual extents and/or augments their activities in the representation called an avatar.