The Terf virtual environment platform by 3DICC also connects to Sharepoint, Active Directory and other standard enterprise infrastructure. For communications, it is typically paired with Cisco’s Jabber platform. The company currently claims more than 100,000 users, including customers from government agencies, major universities and Fortune 10 companies. CEO Julie LeMoine used to be the vice president of advanced collaboration and engineering research at Fidelity Investments, so she is especially concerned about security. “We have a very substantial access control model,” she said.
But virtual reality also poses other kinds of risks. For example, if users are able to modify the appearance of their avatars, they could potentially impersonate other users. “This has been a virtual reality topic since the early days of immersive worlds such as Second Life,” LeMoine said. Terf addresses the issue by allowing companies to limit how avatars can be customized, controlling whether avatar names can be changed, and whether photos or webcam videos can be used in addition to, or in place of, avatar faces.
Another unique concern of virtual environments is the ability for users to modify the environment itself. In one highly publicized case, a company that held a public event in Second Life was attacked by flying phalluses. Diverse virtual environments put different levels of restrictions about what users can and cannot do inside the platform, with enterprise-oriented companies offering management features to restrict certain types of behaviors.