IT Insights

Meta to let parents limit teenager's virtual-reality exploration

Meta-owned Oculus has rolled out parental controls to protect children from inappropriate content. Parents are allowed to lock specific apps directly from VR to stop teenagers accessing them and block teenagers from downloading or purchasing age-inappropriate apps in the Quest Store. A "Parent Dashboard" is also available on the Oculus mobile app, allowing parents to link to their child’s account for tracking their actions in VR under consent.

Australian government to introduce crypto exchange 'badge of approval'

Minister for Digital Economy Jane Hume has announced the Australian government will "let Australians invest in crypto assets safely and securely" by establishing a market licence regime for crypto exchanges. The federal government is also introducing custody arrangements for crypto exchanges to assure there is "trust" between the crypto investor and exchange.

System Updates

3 ways to meet new hybrid expectations with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365

More than 270 million people rely on Teams for hybrid work. 50 percent of organizations have standardized on Teams, according to a recent CIO survey. today, Microsoft has announced new features and solutions to address the new expectations people have for the workplace, no matter it is about creating more engaging meeting experiences, enabling collaboration with external partners or customers, or giving the flexibility to work in hybrid environment.

Sneak Peek: NetSuite OpenAir 2022 release 1 offers a renewed User experience, unified connectivity and an enhanced project center

NetSuite OpenAir 2022 Release 1 will help project managers and delivery teams increase their focus and productivity. The release also updates the user experience and delivers comprehensive reporting through NetSuite and Business Intelligence Connectors.

Cybersecurity Announcements

Google to acquire cybersecurity firm Mandiant for $5.4 billion

Google plans to buy cybersecurity firm Mandiant for around $5.4 billion. Search giant will pay $23 a share for the company, which was founded in 2004. Mandiant will join Google's cloud computing division, which is yet to grow to the same size as Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services. Shares of Mandiant jumped 16% on reports Google was interested in buying the cybersecurity firm. It is expected that the deal would have a "major ripple impact" across the cybersecurity space, making cloud giants like Amazon and Microsoft are pressured into M&A and further bulk up the cloud platforms.

A new ransomware attack threatens to wipe out Windows computers.

LokiLocker, a relatively recent Ransomware, employs the conventional extortion-through-encryption scheme while additionally including disk-wiper capability. LokiLocker threatens to erase all files on the target system with a single stroke if the victim does not pay the ransom demand. This makes the LokiLocker strain go beyond the double extortion method that became popular in the past two years.