*Ad Hoc Networks* *Security of Emerging Virtual Environments:* * Metaverse and Extended Reality* ***Submissions are due:* March 31st, 2023**** https://www.journals.elsevier.com/ad-hoc-networks/call-for-papers/security-o... *We encourage early submission* The real world is surrounded by people, buildings, hospitals, factories, businesses, vehicles, cognitive cities, and the billions of devices that provide various services and connect us and this world. Various advanced technologies including AR, VR, XR, and the Digital Twin provide advanced solutions to create a new virtual world (aka, Metaverse) where the avatars of the users can interact with 3D objects as in the real life. Metaverse is a virtual world of Digital Twins and NFTs. Such technologies provide a wide range of new services that require the collection of various types of data about real objects, users including their biometric information (e.g., eyes or voice fingerprints, etc.), and the surrounding environment (e.g., weather, traffic flow, etc.). The collected data can be used for identifying the various users, sharing their characteristics, or capturing their interaction with the environment to provide a unique immersive experience in the 3D virtual world. Furthermore, each realistic object modeled in the virtual environment should rely on the status of its physical twin including interactions and relations between everything else. As a result, a wide range of new services and applications will be provided connecting events in the virtual and the real worlds and causing more complex interactions. The huge amount of collected data in the virtual and the real worlds sets heavy challenges on the networking and computing systems as such technologies have strict boundaries related to the security and privacy of the gathered data. Moreover, the wireless communication between mobile devices that generate data streams and the mobility of physical devices make the related issues more difficult to address. Indeed, these challenges increase with the complexity of the used technologies as new advanced attacks can be designed allowing for the exploitation of the collected data such as creating multiple fake avatars. The purpose of this special issue is to elaborate on and emphasize the key aspects to secure emerging virtual environments that rely on wireless communication. It welcomes original research and innovative solutions on the above subjects as well as case studies that explore the potential exploitation of data security, privacy, and trust in the Metaverse. Research may cover and focus on either the fundamental methodological studies or the use case and application demonstrations. Topics of interest include, but are certainly not limited to: ● Blockchain assisted the metaverse ● Blockchain for the Digital Twin ● Edge computing for the Internet of Metaverse ● Network security of the metaverse ● Digital Twin and Metaverse privacy ● Consensus and mining algorithms suited for the metaverse ● Blockchain-based controlled mobility and QoS in the metaverse ● Cybersecurity in the metaverse ● Cybersecurity in XR-based applications ● Trust, Security, and Privacy in the metaverse application ● Trusted Zero-touch networks for the metaverse ● Trusted software and applications for the metaverse ● Digital Identification and authentication mechanisms ● Intrusion detection and prevention in the emerging virtual environments ● Secure mobile ad-hoc network for the metaverse *Guest editors:* ● Moayad Aloqaily, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, UAE. ● Ouns Bouachir, Zayed University, UAE. ● Lewis Tseng, Boston College, USA. ● Giancarlo Fortino, University of Calabria, Italy.