Cytek

If there’s one thing Cytek’s COO Theresa Wacker has learned after protecting more than 320 organizations and 10,000+ endpoints, it’s this: in cybersecurity, you can’t fake resilience.

This is especially true when you’re the managed security service provider (MSSP) responsible for protecting healthcare clinics, oral surgery practices, and manufacturers, along with every device that keeps those operations running.

When Cytek’s legacy tools created more noise than clarity and their analysts started drowning in alerts, they knew something had to change. And fast.

Challenge | Too much noise with too little insight

By 2020, Cytek had built a strong reputation as a trusted leader in protecting regulated industries known for strict compliance and high standards. But keeping up that level of excellence meant they needed top-notch protection. The problem came when their existing cybersecurity tools couldn’t keep up with the rapidly evolving threat landscape.

Earlier solutions, including those from well-known cybersecurity vendors, flooded the Cytek team with false positives. This meant analysts could spend up to two hours investigating alerts that turned out to be nothing. While Cytek was fighting through noisy dashboards, real threats were escalating.

In particular, ransomware was surging across the same healthcare practices they served. In one case, a husband and wife who ran separate dental practices shared a subnet. The wife’s practice, which wasn’t protected by Huntress, was locked down by ransomware. The husband’s practice, which was protected by Huntress, avoided operational downtime and the need to report a breach.

If there was ever a wake-up call, this was it.

Solution | Enhanced visibility and a fully managed defense

In 2021, Cytek adopted the Huntress Security Platform as an optional service, but upon finding success with it, they ultimately rolled out Huntress Managed EDR, Managed ITDR, and Managed SIEM across their entire client base.

Cytek chose Huntress for their fully managed services, accurate alerts, and cost-effectiveness. It didn’t take long to feel the impact:

• Reducing noise and gaining needed clarity

  Huntress filtered out the “junk” alerts and prioritized only what mattered. For a team managing over 10,000 endpoints, that shift alone was transformative.

  “When it comes to Huntress, the amount of data it gathers and having it all in one place really makes it easy for us to tell what’s going on,” says Cytek Senior Analyst Tyler Autry.

• Responding faster without guesswork

  Huntress did more than just detect threats for Cytek. The Huntress SOC—a 24/7 team of elite threat analysts backed by AI—acted on them immediately. This was a radical improvement over their previous unmanaged tools.

  “Once Huntress gets on it, the likelihood of a client actually getting ransomed is significantly less,” says Autry.

• Preventing financial damage without inflating costs

  For Cytek, Huntress has been a cost-effective solution. Wacker shares a concrete example, explaining how a lightweight agent saved a client thousands of dollars by preventing a widespread ransomware attack. That level of ROI made it an easy decision for Cytek to make Huntress a standard part of their offering.

• Centralizing security around a single platform

  Huntress’ integrated approach with EDR, ITDR, and SIEM gave Cytek a security foundation strong enough to scale. Wacker notes Huntress is now one of the most critical tools in their stack. Because of Huntress’ focus on both compliance and security, she says, “Huntress is the number one most important tool we have in our toolbox.”

“Because Huntress is managed, there’s always someone there for us. We know when we get an alert, we need to pay attention to it, whereas with other solutions it’s like the boy who cried wolf.” — Theresa Wacker, COO, Cytek

Results: Ransomware stopped, clients protected, and confidence restored

With the Huntress Security Platform, Cytek replaced their fragmented tools with a unified, managed security solution, streamlining their approach to cybersecurity. Here’s what changed:

• Ransomware contained, and fast

  When ransomware hit a dental practice sharing a network with another, only the Huntress-protected endpoints stayed safe. That single incident reinforced the value of a managed cybersecurity solution.

• Fewer alerts and faster investigations

  With Huntress filtering and analyzing threats upfront, Cytek’s analysts could finally dedicate their time to resolving real issues instead of chasing down false positives.

• Better compliance without more complexity

  Managed SIEM gave Cytek’s clients the compliance and audit-ready reporting they needed, especially for healthcare clients operating under strict HIPAA regulations.

  And for organizations aligning to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) frameworks, it provides the centralized logging and monitoring that auditors typically expect, all without piling on tools, cost, or headcount.

• A clear business win for Cytek and their clients

  Huntress offers strong, reliable protection at a great price. Wacker emphasizes the benefit of getting three powerful unified tools—Managed EDR, Managed ITDR, and Managed SIEM—for just a few dollars per device each month. This affordable and powerful solution could potentially save clients hundreds of thousands of dollars by stopping ransomware attacks and avoiding costly HIPAA fines.

When Cytek replaced noisy, high-maintenance security tools with Huntress, they did far more than upgrade their tech stack. They redefined how they defend every endpoint, identity, and operation across their client base.

Today, with Huntress behind them, Cytek can stop ransomware before it spreads, meet rigid regulatory demands with less friction, and bring essential industries the kind of protection they deserve.

“With Huntress, clients see us not just as an MSSP. They see us as their trusted line of defense against real threats.” — Theresa Wacker, COO, Cytek