How Adcock Ingram Simplified Cybersecurity Without Compromising Protection

Adcock Ingram, one of South Africa's leading pharmaceutical and healthcare companies, manufactures and distributes medicines that millions of people rely on every day. Keeping those operations running securely is a top priority.

When Juan Brunette joined the company as IT Executive, he quickly learned why. On his first day, Adcock Ingram was responding to an active phishing attack.

"It immediately highlighted the importance of modernizing our cybersecurity," he said.

At the time, Adcock Ingram had limited visibility across its environment and relied on traditional security technologies. Brunette set out to modernize the company's cybersecurity strategy with a platform built for today's threat landscape.

Today, Adcock Ingram uses the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform to give its lean IT team the unified visibility and protection needed to secure the business.

With nearly three decades in IT, Brunette uses one principle to guide every technology decision.

"My philosophy is simplicity and standardization," he said. "The more tools, agents, and platforms you introduce, the more complexity and operational overhead you create. Technology should solve problems, not create additional complexity."

That philosophy shaped Adcock Ingram's search for a modern cybersecurity platform. Rather than simply replacing endpoint protection, the company wanted a platform that could improve visibility, integrate with its SOC, and support a growing technology footprint without increasing administrative burden.

CrowdStrike stood out not only for its platform, but the partnership behind it.

"What stood out immediately was the simplicity of the platform, the maturity of the technology, and the quality of the people,” Brunette said. "The conversations were not only about endpoint protection. They focused on operational maturity, visibility, telemetry, SOC integration, and long-term cybersecurity strategy."

Brunette had previously evaluated CrowdStrike at another organization and already knew what the Falcon platform could deliver. At Adcock Ingram, that confidence was reinforced by the company's managed security partner, Integrity360, whose operational experience with CrowdStrike helped validate the decision.

"The technical support teams were extremely knowledgeable and responsive," Brunette said. "It genuinely felt like they were invested in our success rather than simply selling products."

Adcock Ingram's technology environment extends beyond employee laptops. Critical business operations rely on Oracle ERP systems, Linux servers, warehouse scanners, tablets used by field reps, mobile devices, and other infrastructure. All of these require consistent protection.

"The deployment was honestly one of the smoothest security deployments I’ve experienced," Brunette said. "We're talking weeks, not months."

Because the Falcon sensor could operate alongside the company's existing security solution during migration, Adcock Ingram transitioned without disrupting users or business operations.

"The deployment was remarkably smooth and fast," noted Jacques Burger, IT Security Manager at Adcock Ingram. "Most users didn’t even notice the transition."

The lightweight Falcon sensor enabled Adcock Ingram to extend protection across systems that had traditionally been more difficult to secure.

"It was also the first time in my career that I was comfortable allowing a security platform to operate at an EDR level on critical systems like Oracle ERP and SQL databases," Brunette said. "We could realistically manage and secure the entire estate through one centralized platform and one lightweight sensor."

As the Falcon platform became part of day-to-day operations, the security team spent less time chasing alerts and more time focusing on genuine risk.

"One of the biggest advantages is the simplicity and operational efficiency of the platform," Brunette said. "Overall, the combination of our SOC, automation, centralized visibility, and intelligent prioritization significantly reduced operational overhead for the team."

Burger saw those operational improvements firsthand. "One of the biggest operational improvements was the reduction in alert fatigue and false positives," he said. "Instead of constantly chasing unnecessary alerts, the team could focus on meaningful incidents, proactive threat hunting, and actual risk reduction."

The Falcon platform has also helped strengthen visibility into sensitive data movement. Adcock Ingram recently began using CrowdStrike Falcon® Data Security to monitor USB devices and other potential data leakage channels while expanding integrations with Mimecast and Cisco Meraki to create a more connected security ecosystem.

That visibility has already proven valuable. In one incident, CrowdStrike identified malicious files stored on an external hard drive that had gone undetected for years, including the historic Love Bug malware. 

"That incident clearly demonstrated the level of visibility, detection capability, and historical threat identification the platform provided," Brunette said.

As the organization continues expanding its security capabilities, AI has become both an opportunity and a new challenge.

"One of the biggest concerns is sensitive company information being entered into uncontrolled external AI platforms," Burger said. "Our focus is therefore on visibility, policy enforcement, user awareness, and ensuring that sensitive data remains protected."

Brunette also sees AI becoming an operational advantage for lean IT teams. "CrowdStrike Charlotte AI helps us simplify investigations significantly," he said. "Teams can ask questions in plain English, prioritize incidents faster, and even generate scripts and automated actions directly within the platform."

Adcock Ingram plans to continue expanding its use of the Falcon platform through additional integrations and automation, while maintaining the philosophy that has guided its cybersecurity transformation from the beginning.

"My advice for other organizations is to keep it simple," Brunette concluded. "Choose a platform that gives you the visibility and protection you need without adding complexity. That's exactly what CrowdStrike has done for us."