We don't get to choose the weather, it's an import we've no control over, but as a small business owner there are other more manageable risks I can focus on.

As global events continue to seem unstable we've been getting calls about data onshoring and reducing risks of data overseas.

France is switching governmental IT away from US influence and given current events, it may be prudent to have a look and see where your data resides. Are you happy to have it crawled by AI?

While offshoring hosting and IT may offer cost savings, it introduces significant legal, compliance, security and control risks. Awareness of laws (GDPR and the CLOUD Act), data sovereignty, performance impacts and vendor oversight is essential before making decisions as to where your website is hosted and who is processing your customer data.

When we start work with a customer we always do a few simple checks: load speed, UK GDPR compliance and security are usually the first areas we look at. One issue we see over and over again is failure to register with the ICO, and then have a robust and UK GDPR compliant privacy notice. For most SMEs it will cost under £60 to register and use of the ICO's (free) privacy notice generator.

Of course you will also need internal processes set up, but with a few general principles you can do an audit quite quickly and then have a plan on what needs attention.

With the rise in tensions globally, don't think "I'm too small to matter", 60 per cent is the commonly cited industry figure for small UK firms that don’t reopen after a data breach or severe cyberattack. Don't let that be you. I’m happy to pledge a free website review to any local business needing help. Phone me on 07968 756595.

By Stuart Morrison