Cybersecurity for SMEs: less than two coffees a day separates you from cyber disaster

The perfect storm looming over Spain's small businesses.

If you run a medical clinic, a law firm, a consultancy or a fashion brand with an online shop, the statistics are not in your favour.

The National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE) closed 2024 with 97,348 incidents managed, 16.6% more than in 2023; one in three directly affected companies, mostly SMEs.

Behind this overall figure, some sectors stand out for their vulnerability:

The question is no longer if it will be attacked, but when.

According to ONTSI and Hiscox, 96% of Spanish companies suffered at least one intrusion attempt in the last 12 months.

For each hit that reaches its target, the average bill is around 75,000 euros, and can exceed 200,000 in serious cases. Worse still: 6 out of 10 SMEs close within six months of a major cyber-attack, according to Cadena Ser sources.

With these figures, let's not kid ourselves... criminals have industrialised digital crime; and your company, on the other hand, still thinks that ‘this only happens to the big guys’.

X-ray of the cyber-attack on Spanish SMEs

Medical clinics

Medical records are worth up to ten times more than bank details on the dark web. In 2024, the healthcare sector was the third most attacked industry nationally, with a 47% growth in reported incidents.

The average downtime after a healthcare ransomware attack exceeds 26 hours and $900,000 in daily downtime losses.

Law firms and consultancies

For a law firm, a file leak breaches professional secrecy and immediately triggers civil liability.

Last November, the newspaper Cinco Días reported that the Madrid Bar Association had just published its first urgent cybersecurity guide after finding 237,640 cybercrimes in Spain between January and July 2024 in this sector.

Retail and direct-to-consumer fashion

The hook is in your online sales. Bots test leaked credentials every night; denials of service spiked incidents by 67% in the first quarter of 2025 according to cybersecurritynews.es

And of course... we already know that a down server during sales or black friday, not only burns revenue: it lowers SEO rankings and erodes brand trust.

The false belief that protecting yourself ‘is expensive’

Let's translate this information into numbers:

• Average cost of a cyber-attack on an SME: €75,000.
• Estimated annual probability of suffering a material incident: > 50% in the above sectors.
• GH Protection Basic Plan: €24.95/user/month.

Divide by 30 days: €0.83 per day. That's less than two coffees in any neighbourhood coffee shop. And if today you invite yourself, tomorrow you invite the whole team: in an office of 15 people we are talking about €12.45 a day - a round of snacks - compared to a potential cost of €75,000.

In terms of return, the protection pays for itself in less than 90 seconds of avoided downtime per year for an e-commerce business with a turnover of €1,000 per hour.

The numbers add up if you think about it, don't you think?

Three myths that need to be busted (now)

1. ‘We're not targeted, we're small.’

Attackers seek volume, not headlines. Mass phishing and automated ransomware kits do the rest.

2. ‘I have backup or antivirus, that's enough.’

Without a 360 cybersecurity strategy, 24×7 monitoring, no offline copies, no retention policies, your backup can be encrypted along with the primary server.

3. ‘Cyber insurance covers me.’

The policy requires minimum controls: MFA, encryption, continuity plans. Without them, indemnity is reduced or disappears.

What does real protection cover?

With GH Protection you get the same defence ‘engine’ in all three forms; the difference is in the extras of our managed SOC which will depend on your company's needs.

They all include:

• Endpoint and email protection with anti-phishing AI.
• Cloud Managed Firewall with DNS filtering.
• Geo-redundant encrypted backups.
• Incident response included, no small print.

Don't wait any longer...

Activate these practical steps for your company (today)

1. Audit your attack surface: inventory of devices, users and applications.
2. Enable multi-factor authentication on mail, VPN and CRM.
3. Update and patch.
4. Train your team: 10 minutes of phishing drill saves thousands of euros.
5. Outsource what you can't monitor 24×7. Exactly what we do at GH Protection.

Don't trust and become one of those companies that is prepared for a cyber-attack and survive it.

It may seem like a cliché, but the reality is that...

Cyber-attacks are no longer science fiction. They are a line on the bottom line - and sometimes the bottom line - of hundreds of small businesses every month.

But the good news is that protecting your business costs less than two coffees a day.

If you've made it this far, you know what's at stake. The next step is as easy as clicking and discovering what our team can do for you.

👉 Find out more about our GH Protection here: grayhats.com/en/solutions/cyber-protection

Let's protect your business today so you can keep doing what you do best tomorrow.

"Because the real cost is not in the investment, but in not investing".