Blogs - Catapult Systems

Replacing GSM in SCOM with Application Insights

InfrastructureBy Cameron Fuller January 22, 2018

If you use Microsoft’s Global Service Monitor (GSM) in SCOM you may have run into something like this recently: Description: The health service HTTP module in management group “<MGNAME>” failed to resolve service’s DNS. Please check configuration settings. Provided configuration: Service Url https://b850bab6-61d9-4262-838d-ad4e82b6a6e2.ods.opinsights.azure.com/DiagnosticsDataService.svc/PostDataItems. Proxy Provided . This error indicates an underlying issue with GSM. While…

Integrated Apps Ransomware Potential Exploit

SecurityBy David Broussard January 16, 2018

I saw this exploit on LinkedIn and its fairly troubling. Essentially if a user accepts a Third Party Add In to Outlook and grants it the right permissions, the hacker can encrypt their email and hold it for ransom. Here is the video that demonstrates the exploit. There have been two proposed solutions to the…

Create Zero-Touch Windows 10 ISO

InfrastructureBy Matthew Dowst December 11, 2017

I’ve recently been doing some testing between the different Windows 10 releases, and wanted to quick way to be able to install new VMs without maintaining a bunch of different VM templates, or using MDT. To do this I made a ISO image that installs the base Windows 10 image without any manual interaction required.…

3 Steps to a Self-Healing Business

GeneralBy Catapult Systems December 8, 2017

One of the greatest risks to any business that is highly dependent upon the reliability of their equipment is down time. In manufacturing and oil and gas, downtime seems to be an inevitability that cuts into profits and drives operations managers mad. Absent events of force majeure, most extended outages never need to happen. Wait!…

Value of Stolen Data Often Dictates Hacker Behavior

SecurityBy Ed Higgins December 7, 2017

Beware of the old deceptive denial of service attack… I recently read an interesting article written by Paul Mazzucco, CTO at TierPoint, on Radware’s blog entitled, “See Through the DDOS Smoke-Screen to Protect Sensitive Data”. The article raises an interesting revisit to an attack behavior that we is now witnessing in real-time involving bad…

Part 4: IoT, When my Home Thermostat Becomes a Weapon

SecurityBy Ed Higgins December 3, 2017

In the third segment of this series (Part 3), we reviewed an expanded review of relevant examples of threats posed by unsecured IoT devices and delved, but for a moment, into the heads of the bad-actors. In this last segment, Part 4, we’ll cover several steps you can take at home, and in your business,…

Part 3: IoT, When my Home Thermostat Becomes a Weapon

SecurityBy Ed Higgins December 2, 2017

In this, Part 3 of the series, let us continue to look at few more nasty security risks associated with insecure IoT devices. Let’s continue… So, enough with the home thermostat, what about the “real” world. Many of you may remember the bizarre security incident that occurred in Dallas back in 2009 when a hacker,…

Part 2: IoT, When my Home Thermostat Becomes a Weapon

SecurityBy Ed Higgins December 1, 2017

In the first segment (Part 1), I shared some viewpoints on Internet of Things (IoT) devices, namely using the home thermostat as an example. In this, Part 2, let us take a look at some of the various attack surfaces and potential risks associated with IoT. Let’s continue… So, What Could a Hacked Thermostat Do…

Catapult Systems Hits Refresh with Solutions as a Service

Subscription ServicesBy Cameron Fuller November 30, 2017

I was recently reading Satya’s book Hit Refresh when I was struck by the fact that my employer had recently had their own moment where we Hit Refresh. For those who aren’t familiar with Catapult Systems – we have been providing services to help our customers leverage Microsoft technology for over 20 years. Here’s a…

Part 1: IoT, When my Home Thermostat Becomes a Weapon

SecurityBy Ed Higgins November 29, 2017

This will be a multi-segment series that takes a look at security surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT), where we’ll explore existing threats and delve into a few new ones. Of course, we’ll close out the series with some helpful pragmatic steps you can take for both your home and your business to not…