Comserv Connect

08/26/2026

If a Pokémon Center order was cancelled on you this month, the email blamed an unforeseen fulfilment issue.

It was a cyberattack. Not on Pokémon.

In the UK and Germany, Pokémon Center does not pack and ship its own orders. A logistics firm called CEVA Logistics does. CEVA was attacked, and customers were then told their names, addresses, phone numbers, emails and the contents of their orders had been exposed.

Every one of those customers chose Pokémon. Not one of them chose CEVA. Most had never heard the name until they read the notification.

Days earlier, Trezor said 13,689 of its customers had details exposed. Trezor was not breached either. Its shipping provider was.

The usual advice is to know your vendors. Good advice, and it would not have helped here. Both companies could name their vendor. The break was one layer down. Your contracts cover the companies you chose, not the companies your companies chose.

You are not going to audit your suppliers' suppliers, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

But there is one question worth asking whichever vendor holds the most customer data for you. When one of your suppliers is breached, how and when do we find out?

That is a phone call, not a project. A vendor who has thought about it will describe their process. A vendor who has not will change the subject.

The full version, including what you can look up for free today: https://www.comservconnect.com/blog/the-layer-below-your-vendor-list

08/26/2026

On September 1, more than 500 films come out of people's UK PlayStation libraries. Films they bought, not rented. Sony's licensing deal with StudioCanal expired, and no refunds have been announced.

Microsoft retired Copilot features this month. Group chats, podcasts and Deep Research went on August 18. Copilot Labs and the animated assistant are going too, but account by account, with no fixed date. Anything not saved first may not be there afterward.

OpenAI shut the Sora app in April.

Different companies, same shape. Access to something you made or paid for gets cut, and the only notice is a support page nobody reads.

That matters more now, because your team is making things inside these tools. Prompts, drafts, research, a whole way of working that lives nowhere else.

To be fair to Copilot, if you are already on Microsoft 365 it is worth testing. It is very good at reading back a year of your email to work out where a conversation stands and what is still unanswered.

The point is not which tool you buy. It is keeping your own copy of anything that only lives inside one.

Across our own clients we see fewer businesses on Copilot than on ChatGPT or Claude, in a mix of personal accounts and team accounts.

Want a hand working out what your team is actually on? Book a free 30-minute strategy session: https://www.comservconnect.com/free-strategy-call

08/21/2026

A lot has changed in 12 months. Thanks to the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce staff as well as the business and nonprofit leaders that took the time to attend, learn and share.

Reach out to us to speak about AI in your organization and how we may be able to help.

https://www.comservconnect.com/free-strategy-call

08/21/2026

If you run a nonprofit, this is the one to read this week.

A company that makes donor-database software was breached. More than a thousand charities were affected, and the attacker appears to have taken everything in the database. Names, phone numbers, emails, addresses. No bank or card details.

Here is the uncomfortable part. Those charities did nothing wrong. The data was never on their computers. There was no update they missed, no setting they should have changed, no training that would have stopped it.

What is theirs is the phone call. Donors are not going to ring the software company. They are going to ring the charity.

One thing worth doing this week. Write down every outside company that holds a donor record for you, and who owns that relationship. If you cannot finish the list, that is the finding.

The full write-up: https://www.comservconnect.com/blog/your-donor-list-lives-somewhere-else

08/20/2026

Spreading 🧠 on the Island!

Yesterday, the Chamber hosted an AI for Small Businesses Workshop at the Chamber's office, presented by Comserv Connect. Members learned how AI has evolved in 2026 and what that means for day to day operations. Thanks to everyone who joined us! 🤖💡

08/20/2026

Yesterday, the Chamber hosted an AI for Small Businesses Workshop at the Chamber's office, presented by Comserv Connect. Members learned how AI has evolved in 2026 and what that means for day to day operations. Thanks to everyone who joined us! 🤖💡

08/19/2026

Worth an honest minute, because AI assistants are showing up in every browser now.

Researchers have shown that an AI assistant reading your inbox can be tricked by the mail itself. Instructions get hidden inside an ordinary email or a calendar invite. The assistant reads them, cannot tell them apart from your own request, and acts on them. It is already logged in as you.

Nobody clicks a bad link. There is no attachment to avoid. The old advice does not cover this one.

Where we land right now: let it read and summarize, do not let it answer email on its own. Start with read access and prove it out before you give it more.

And if somebody in your office already connected one, the first question is not about the extension. It is how a regular user was able to connect an app to company email without an admin saying yes.

Here is what to check before you connect one to your email: https://www.comservconnect.com/blog/before-you-let-ai-read-your-email

08/17/2026

OpenAI just released an AI built for hacking. You cannot buy it, and we are not going to tell you it is being aimed at your business. That is not what we see happening to companies your size.

Here is what we would pay attention to instead. The things in your office that are not computers. The wifi access points, the printer, the firewall, the tablets. They get set up once and never touched again, because most people do not think of them as computers. Most of the ones we see are a year or two behind.

Those are what get found faster now.

Not sure when yours were last updated? Book a free 30-minute strategy session with Comserv Connect at comservconnect.com.

08/14/2026

A hard truth for anyone who runs or volunteers for a small nonprofit or church: "too small to be a target" no longer holds. Small charities have been showing up on the same ransomware leak sites as big companies, because attackers grab whoever left a door open.

We have worked with a lot of nonprofits that did not realize they needed more protection. The cheapest high-impact fix: make sure the email accounts your staff use every day are not the global admin on the account, so one bad click cannot hand over everything. Turn on multi-factor sign-in, test your backups, and you are most of the way there.

Remember that your donor and member data is your biggest resource and your biggest risk at once. The affordable checklist is on our blog: https://www.comservconnect.com/blog/nonprofits-are-on-the-target-list

Want a straight answer about where your organization stands? Book a free 30-minute strategy session with Comserv Connect at comservconnect.com.

Powered by Qualiflai.com

08/13/2026

Wednesday, August 19th at 12 PM. I'm back at the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce to talk AI with Staten Island's small businesses and nonprofits.

Last year we covered what you can do with AI and chat. This year we're going further: what AI can do for you agentically. That means setting AI up with a task and a goal and letting it work through everything while you go focus on something else.

We'll walk through real use cases, including Staten Island businesses already using AI as an employee inside their company.

Lunch catered by Pastosa. Free for chamber members.

One note: we're very close to capacity. If we've talked and you haven't registered yet, now's the time. Register here: https://www.sichamber.com/aiworkshop

Want to talk AI before or after the seminar? Book a free 30-minute strategy call: https://www.comservconnect.com/free-strategy-call