Second Life: A Virtual World Platform for Profiling Online Behavior for Network and Information Security Education? An Initial Investigation

What Can Be Accomplished In Second Life

Beyond the mundane use of holding class lectures, SL presents an environment where concepts such as cyber eavesdropping, profiling of online user behavior, and even would-be criminal acts such as fraud, can be demonstrated with little or no real world harm or consequences. Due to the open nature of online behavior, great amounts of information about SL users (called residents by Linden Laboratories) can be gleaned without fear of violating privacy laws. The only question that arises with this potential use is when such activities approach a form of cyberstalking if such activities extend beyond SL for some reason.