Ransomware resilience for SMEs isn't about buying expensive tools. It's about a short list of high-impact controls done properly.
New guide: 10-point plan aimed at organisations without dedicated security teams. Covers immutable backups, MFA, recovery drills, offsite storage, credential management, and what to actually test.
https://readmodel.com/blog/article.php?slug=ransomware-resilience-checklist
#RansomwareResilience #CyberSecurity #SMB #readmodel #locaverdi

Ransomware readiness scored per service, 0–100, weighted by what actually determines recovery.
Immutable backups and MFA carry the highest weight. Backup testing, offsite storage, patch management, encryption, credential management, account recovery, criticality — all factored in. Services scoring below 40 flagged as critical.
https://readmodel.com/blog/article.php?slug=ransomware-resilience-checklist
#RansomwareResilience #CyberSecurity #BackupStrategy #readmodel #locaverdi

Most SME ransomware advice is either "buy this expensive tool" or "here's a scary statistic." Both unhelpful.
The boring version: immutable backups + MFA + a tested recovery plan covers most of what matters. Controls most teams don't find exciting to implement, which is exactly why they don't.
Wrote a 10-point checklist for organisations without dedicated security teams.
https://readmodel.com/blog/article.php?slug=ransomware-resilience-checklist
#RansomwareResilience #CyberSecurity #readmodel #locaverdi

Five-minute Readmodel® demo: full compliance workflow in one walkthrough.
Create a project. Add Claude as an AI service. Add a user, their laptop, their access. Watch the risk register catch the gaps — missing 2FA, undocumented processor role, unreviewed access. Run an access review. Generate the printable ROPA with an AI-written summary section.
https://youtu.be/20VtaBhrfpQ
Free Explore tier: https://readmodel.com
#DataMapping #GDPR #ROPA #readmodel #locaverdi

Spent four weeks writing long compliance articles. The analytics told me what was obvious in hindsight — most people would rather watch than read.
So here's a five-minute demo of the thing I've been writing about. Creates a project, adds an AI service, maps users and access, generates a ROPA. Free tier is real.
https://youtu.be/20VtaBhrfpQ
#DataMapping #GDPR #readmodel #locaverdi

Most organisations treat GDPR, NIS2, and the AI Act as three separate compliance projects. They're not. They're the same problem viewed from three angles — and the siloed approach is what's breaking.
The IAPP calls the integrated version "aligned governance." Most orgs are nowhere near it yet.
Wrote up why 2026 is the inflection point.
https://readmodel.com/blog/article.php?slug=digital-governance-beyond-gdpr
#DigitalGovernance #GDPR #NIS2 #readmodel #locaverdi

GDPR, NIS2, and the EU AI Act overlap — but most organisations still manage them in silos.
The IAPP's 2024 Digital Governance Report calls this the "analog" maturity level. It creates blind spots, duplication, and slow incident response.
Our new article: why 2026 is the inflection point, and three practical steps toward integrated governance.
https://readmodel.com/blog/article.php?slug=digital-governance-beyond-gdpr
#DigitalGovernance #GDPR #NIS2 #readmodel #locaverdi

Third post this week on compliance, but this one is on the clock.
The EU AI Act deadline is August 2, 2026. That's four months away. And unlike GDPR, which most SMBs at least pretend to take seriously, AI governance is currently a blank page at almost every mid-market company I talk to.
Here's the uncomfortable part: you're already a "deployer" under the Act. If your team uses ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, or any AI feature buried inside your CRM or HR platform, you have obligations. Not because you built the AI — because you chose to use it.
The obligations themselves are manageable. Inventory your AI services. Classify each one by risk. Document human oversight for anything that affects people. Integrate it with your existing ROPA. None of that is hard. What's hard is that almost nobody has started.
One thing to know that often gets missed: the AI literacy requirement (Article 4) already took effect in February 2025. If your staff use AI tools, they're already supposed to have training. That deadline is in the past, not the future.
I wrote a guide on what SMBs actually need to do. Four steps, mapped against the August 2026 deadline, written for people who don't have a Chief AI Officer.
https://readmodel.com/blog/article.php?slug=ai-governance-guide
#EUAIAct #AIGovernance #GDPR #readmodel #locaverdi

Quick follow-up to my ROPA post earlier this week.
The replies and DMs converged on one question: "Okay, but where does the ROPA actually come from?" Fair. I jumped straight to the output without explaining the input.
So here's the input: a data map. The living inventory of what personal data you have, where it lives, who can touch it, and why you're keeping it. Get those four right and the ROPA writes itself. Get them wrong — or skip them entirely, which most organisations do — and you're filling in an Article 30 register from guesswork.
The thing most GDPR guidance gets wrong about data mapping: it's treated as a one-time exercise. Sit in a meeting room, list your services, tick the box, move on. Six months later a new SaaS tool got adopted, nobody updated the map, and your "compliance" is fiction.
I wrote a step-by-step guide on building a data map that actually stays current. Five steps, no jargon, aimed at SMEs without a six-figure consulting budget.
https://readmodel.com/blog/gdpr-data-mapping-guide
#GDPR #DataProtection #Privacy #readmodel #locaverdi

Following up on our ROPA tool guide from earlier this week — the question we kept getting was "where does the ROPA actually come from?"
The answer is the data map. A ROPA is the output; the data map is the input.
Our latest guide walks through the five steps of building a GDPR data map that stays current as your organisation evolves.
Read the full guide: https://readmodel.com/blog/gdpr-data-mapping-guide
#GDPR #DataMapping #Article30 #Compliance #readmodel #locaverdi