After FBI Alerts, Salesforce Turns to CrowdStrike for Cover
This week on Funnel Frontier: Phishing surged, the FBI warned & Salesforce responded by arming its stack with CrowdStrike to guard AI bots, data & workflows.
This week:
- After FBI alerts, Salesforce turns to CrowdStrike for cover
- Thoma Bravo’s CRM shopping spree continues—PROS next in line
Stat of the Week
75% of organizations using CRM have experienced significant improvements in customer satisfaction. CRM.org
After FBI alerts, Salesforce turns to CrowdStrike for cover
Last week, the FBI issued a warning to Salesforce users: CRM phishing is on the rise and you’re a target.
This week, Salesforce responded by calling in CrowdStrike to help lock down its AI agents, data, and workflows.
Salesforce just called in the bouncers
Salesforce didn’t just slap on a security badge. It’s integrating CrowdStrike’s Falcon Shield to monitor and defend third-party apps in real-time, flag risky behavior, and auto-respond to SaaS threats.
They’re also bringing in Charlotte AI—Salesforce’s own agentic security analyst available by year’s end—to help spot and respond to threats.
This isn’t just protection for Salesforce itself; it’s a defensive shield for anyone whose data sits inside that stack.
The triggers: real attacks, rising risk
This partnership isn’t happening in a vacuum. Salesforce and its customers have been hit:
- High-profile customers like Google, Adidas, and Farmers Insurance have faced data theft tied to phishing campaigns.
- The recent FBI alert flagged attacks that steal access tokens, spoof login portals, and misuse APIs.
- Hackers have used social engineering to pose as Salesforce support or IT staff to trick employees into granting access.
Bottom line: if your CRM is the brain of your business, it’s time to start treating it like one. Secure it, or suffer.
What you should do if you’re a Salesforce user
If you run anything tied to Salesforce:
- Enable their CrowdStrike shield when available. It’s going to matter.
- Audit any third-party app integrations—cut any that don’t need full access.
- Train your team on realistic phishing simulations (especially fake support or IT calls).
- Monitor logs for behavior anomalies—like credential usage from odd geos, unexpected form submissions, etc.
- Treat your Salesforce instance like the vault it is—it hosts everything, so defend it accordingly.
Salesforce’s move tells us two things:
- The pressure from attacks and regulatory risk is real, and it can’t be ignored.
- If you’re treating security as an afterthought in your stack, you’re overdue.
Your CRM holds more secrets than your CMO’s group chat. Maybe time to password-protect both.
The Week @ CRM.org
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Weekly Bloom
“The Good Life” and Self-Actualization. Life according to humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers (1902-1987). He was a bit like an alien trying to explain emotions to robots: “No, feelings are not an error in your programming; they’re a fundamental part of finding your place in the world.”
Thoma Bravo’s CRM shopping spree continues—PROS next in line
Private equity’s favorite sport? Enterprise stack Jenga.
And Thoma Bravo just pulled another block—with a $1.4 billion deal to scoop up PROS, the B2B pricing and quoting giant used by airlines, distributors, and manufacturers to make their revenue math smarter.
That’s three big moves in under two months, hot on the heels of its Dayforce and Verint roll-ups. So yeah, they’re building something.
From quote to close, Thoma Bravo wants in
PROS isn’t your average SaaS shop. It’s a 30-year vet that quietly powers dynamic pricing, deal configuration, and AI-driven quoting for industries where discounting too deep is a career-limiting move.
American Airlines? Yup, they run PROS. Global manufacturers? Same.
The software plugs into your CRM or ERP, crunches demand signals, competitor moves, historicals, and deal context—and spits out pricing that won’t tank your margins.
Think: ChatGPT for your revenue desk, except it doesn’t make up numbers.
Why this matters now
In a world where AI agents can fire off quotes at scale, you need your pricing engine to be just as fast—and way more consistent.
PROS doesn’t just speed things up; it standardizes pricing logic across teams, geos, and channels. That’s gold for anyone who’s watched reps freestyle discounts just to get a deal done.
And for Thoma Bravo? That’s another mission-critical workflow in the bag.
So what’s Thoma Bravo actually building?
With Dayforce acquisition, they got workforce data—payroll, scheduling, HR ops.
After acquiring Verint, they grabbed the analytics layer—CX insights, agent performance, and customer behavior.
And now with PROS, they own the moment deals get priced, quoted, and pushed over the line.
Each of these tools lives in a different stack—HR, CX, revenue—but they all touch the same customer. And now, Thoma Bravo owns the middleware that makes those systems hum.
They’re not building their own CRM. No need to. Instead, they’re lining the shelves of every CRM in the market with the stuff companies actually use to run things.
And when you own the tools that touch sales, support, HR, pricing, and customer intelligence, you don’t need your own front door. You’re already sitting in every room.
Galactic Gourmet
CRM blips from around the web
Oracle Names Two New Co-CEOs as Safra Catz Steps Aside. Oracle named Clay Magouyrk (OCI) and Mike Sicilia (industry apps) as co-CEOs, signaling a sharper focus on cloud infrastructure and vertical SaaS. Safra Catz moves to exec vice chair after 11 years at the helm.
Pegasystems Launches Infinity 25 With Upgraded AI and UX. Now generally available, Pega Infinity 25 introduces new AI features for case routing, email triage, and process optimization. The platform also adds a redesigned UI and deeper insights to help CX teams work faster with less manual effort.
Talkdesk Launches Service Cloud for Commercial and Residential Trades. Talkdesk’s new vertical cloud targets field service providers like HVAC, plumbing, and home repair. It includes AI-powered scheduling, job tracking, and customer comms to modernize service ops and boost first-time fix rates.
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