Today’s topics include researchers’ demonstration of how they hacked smartphone’s fingerprint sensors using Inkjet printers, the launch of Microsoft’s cloud-first Dynamics AX ERP application, Avaya’s new cloud unified communications platform, and a Lenovo and Juniper partnership to build hyper-converged systems.
Two Michigan State University researchers have used off-the-shelf inkjet printers and special inks to make copies of user’s fingerprints good enough to trick standard fingerprint scanners on popular smartphone models to unlock the devices.
The experiments, conducted by researchers Kai Cao and Anil K. Jain of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University, found that several popular phone models, including the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Huawei Honor 7, could be unlocked using this method.
Keeping its promise to release its cloud-first Dynamics AX enterprise resource planning application in early 2016, Microsoft announced on March 9 that the offering is now available to customers in 137 markets and 40 languages.
Working to deliver a portfolio of intelligent cloud services and software offerings for enterprises, Microsoft is increasingly weaving analytics and machine-learning technologies into its various software suites, including Office and Dynamics ERP and CRM.
Avaya is moving deeper into the cloud with a new communications platform that not only offers customers ways to more easily collaborate, but also enables developers to quickly build collaboration applications.
The company also has expanded and rebranded its DevConnect development platform for building unified communications-enabled apps and is launching an online store for business communications apps.
Avaya officials announced the moves this week during the Enterprise Connect 2016 conference in Orlando, Florida.
Lenovo and Juniper Networks are the latest entrants into what is a fast-growing and increasingly competitive market for hyperconverged and related data center infrastructure systems.
Officials with the two companies announced a partnership on March 9 formed to take advantage of Lenovo’s strengths in x86 servers and Juniper’s expertise in next-generation networking to create converged, hyperconverged and hyperscale offerings for enterprises and Web-scale companies looking for integrated infrastructure products to enable them to accelerate time to market and to drive down costs.