The security landscape is a labyrinth, tightening regulations, headline-grabbing breaches, and more than 5,000 “must-have” products clamouring for attention. We picked one. Huntress earned that privilege by doing what no one else managed: delivering 24 × 7 human eyes on an ocean of endpoint data for roughly the price of a Melbourne flat white per user. When they added identity, macOS, and ransomware defences, it crept up to two coffees, which we still consider a bargain for full-stack protection that has saved our clients’ bacon more times than we can count.
At face value, Huntress looks like an antivirus; peel back the layers, and you get the same deep-dive telemetry and expert analysis our engineers trust on their parents’ PCs, because no IT pro wants the Sunday “my computer’s broken” call unless there’s a roast involved. Jokes aside, the platform ingests hundreds of millions of security events and flags trouble before damage is done. The sections below unpack the latest feature release and translate the tech into real-world scenarios so you can see why partnering with alltasksIT (and Huntress) makes business sense
Most smaller companies can’t afford the big-city security detail that large enterprises keep on payroll. A fully staffed, round-the-clock Security Operations Centre (SOC) would mean hiring several experts, buying expensive monitoring software, and running it all 24 hours a day, far beyond a typical SMB budget.
That’s where Huntress steps in. Think of it as a silent security guard that installs in minutes on every computer, then reports back to a team of seasoned threat hunters who never clock off. If something suspicious pops up—a hidden piece of malware or an attacker trying to sneak in after hours, Huntress spots it, investigates, and guides us on the fastest fix before it becomes a headline.
Until now, the service focused on blocking viruses, removing hidden “back doors,” and catching ransomware early with digital trip-wires called canaries. The latest upgrade goes further: it now watches the accounts your staff use to log in, how your devices talk to each other, and even your Apple devices, so we can see almost every pathway an attacker might try. All of that insight shows up on a single dashboard that our engineers monitor daily, giving your business enterprise-grade protection without the enterprise price tag
The standout change is identity isolation with ITDR. If a criminal tricks an employee into surrendering their Microsoft 365 sign-in, Huntress now severs that account from the network in seconds and flags precisely what the attacker tried to do. You still keep the audit trail for compliance, yet the intruder loses their foothold before any data walks out the door.
Apple users are no longer second-class citizens. The new Managed AV for macOS, coupled with tighter ties to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, means every Mac on your payroll follows the same real-time policies and threat-response playbooks as Windows devices. One console, one set of rules—no gaps.
Phishing has grown craftier, so Huntress now spots adversary-in-the-middle attacks, where a fake website silently intercepts login traffic. Instead of relying on staff to notice something is off, the platform watches the traffic itself, blocks the rogue site and alerts our team to investigate.
Attackers who do slip in often hide software that restarts on every reboot and then creep from one machine to the next. Updated persistence hunting finds those concealed “stay-alive” tricks, while fresh lateral-movement detectors call out any suspicious attempts to hop between devices or identities.
Finally, the ransomware canaries have learnt new tricks, recognising more encryption patterns while dialling down the false alarms, and tamper protection locks the Huntress agent in place on both Mac and Windows. These upgrades arrive automatically under your existing agreement—no new licences, no surprise invoices—so your defences deepen while the price stays flat
08:01 – Phishing, live
Huntress flagged an adversary-in-the-middle attack. A fake webpage had slipped between the user and Microsoft 365, ready to siphon the password. Within seconds, our ITDR playbook isolated the compromised account—no email, no OneDrive, no payroll access—while the employee grabbed another coffee, unaware anything was wrong.
08:05 – Cutting off lateral movement
Attackers who steal one login rarely stop there; they test doors across the network looking for higher privileges. Huntress saw those first probing packets—lateral movement in progress—and blocked the connections before they reached the design workstation that stores every CAD drawing the firm has ever created.
08:09 – Hunting persistence
The threat actor tried to drop a small script that would restart on every reboot, a classic persistence trick. Huntress’ new foothold analytics spotted the attempt, removed the script and confirmed nothing else had been altered.
08:12 – Canary stays silent
Our ransomware canary files—decoys hidden around the file server—remained untouched, proof that no encryption had started. Had a single canary changed, Huntress would have triggered auto-containment and offline backups.
08:15 – Tamper protection holds firm
Frustrated, the attacker tried to uninstall the Huntress agent on a MacBook used for CNC programming. Tamper protection denied the request; audit logs show the uninstall command failed three times before the session vanished.
08:25 – Back to business
Production resumed without a single weld missed. All actions, from isolation to clean-up, were logged against the ACSC Essential Eight controls for identity management, application hardening and regular backups—evidence Westside Boilers now keeps on file for cyber-insurance renewal
The Australian Cyber Security Centre lists application control, patching, multi-factor authentication, restricted admin rights and regular backups as baseline controls for every business. This framework is known as the Essential8, and the guiding principles of the framework are designed to protect businesses across Australia, of all sizes. The framework is event legislated for specific businesses and industries – following it isn’t an option, it’s a must. For most customers however, for those where thes controls are optional, you still have a legislated need to secure your data whether it’s the provisions of the privacy act where you must protect your customer data, or the fines availble to you if negligence was the cause of a breach, security is no longer an optional extra, it’s a mandatory baseline.
Huntress’ new identity isolation and lateral movement detection strengthen MFA and admin-restriction goals, further aligning with the principles of Essential8. At the same time, ransomware canaries and tamper protection underpin backup integrity and application control. Adopting these capabilities, alltasksIT helps clients reach higher Essential Eight maturity without the usual cost or complexity.
The screenshot below shows just how much data we see, which is only over a month. Let’s be clear: 500,000,000 rows of data are analysed by a team of people using machine learning and configured rules, discovering 15 incidents needing action. If you don’t have this sort of protection, or if your existing service provider can’t explain how much protection you have, contact us.
Every alltasksIT Managed Services plan now ships with Huntress built in, with no hidden tiers or bolt-on fees. That means an experienced, round-the-clock security team watches your computers, cloud identities and networks for anything out of place, then steps in with containment advice when trouble appears. Each month, you receive plain-English reports directly to your inbox and your unique customer portal that maps directly to Australian Government guidance such as the ACSC Essential Eight, so you can show auditors, boards and insurers exactly how you stay protected. The price you sign today is the price you pay tomorrow; as Huntress rolls out new capabilities, they land in your environment automatically. You stay free to serve customers, grow revenue and innovate, while we keep the lights on and the criminals out. Curious to see the latest features in action? Let’s chat
Chief Customer Officer
Mark Boyd is a Chief Customer Officer (CCO), plays a key executive role responsible for overseeing the entire customer experience within alltasksIT. The CCO serves as the voice of the customer at the highest levels of the company, ensuring that customer-centric strategies are developed and implemented across all departments.
