Kaspersky Greece in the target of new cyber threats

As the global wave of cyber threats reaches new historical highs, the malicious samples detected by Kaspersky daily exceed 500.000. In this context, Greece is seeing a significant increase in advanced attacks, with small and medium-sized businesses appearing increasingly vulnerable.

“Half a million malware threats a day is not just a number – it shows that we are no longer dealing with sporadic breach attempts, but with an industrialized, massive process,” notes Vasilis Vlachos, Channel Manager GreCy at Kaspersky. “The real danger lies in the fact that attacks are becoming faster, smarter and increasingly difficult to detect.”

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The situation in Greece: Increasingly targeted and dangerous attacks

Greece now ranks sixth globally in terms of the volume of malware detected in incoming email traffic, while it ranks first in Southern Europe in the frequency of attacks targeting highly critical industrial systems. Certain types of attacks — such as password stealers, exploits and backdoors — are showing a significant increase, with backdoor attacks increasing by more than 130% compared to last year.

“Domestically, however, numbers are no longer enough to fully capture the reality. Although individual indicators may fluctuate over the years, the essential change concerns the qualitative leap in threats,” emphasizes Mr. Vlachos. “With the reduction in the cost of using AI to prepare attacks, cybercriminals’ attacks are becoming increasingly convincing, better adapted to local data and more targeted at specific organizations or groups of people. This means that the old logic, according to which fewer incidents meant more security, no longer applies. Today, a single well-executed attack can cause long-term consequences for an organization.”

Small and Medium Enterprises: The Backbone of the Economy and the Easiest Target

In Greece, 99,9% of businesses fall into the SME category, which employs over 80% of the total workforce. Although attacks against them do not always offer the greatest financial return to criminals, small and medium-sized businesses remain the most frequent target — and not by chance.

“Small and medium-sized businesses have valuable data, but they operate with limited resources. This is a combination that attackers know all too well,” explains Vasilis Vlachos. “Attacks are becoming more and more sophisticated, and the majority of smaller businesses simply cannot keep up with the pace of this evolution.”

A global survey based on interviews with 880 SMEs in Greece and 15 other countries in Europe and South Africa showed that Greek businesses face challenges similar to those in Europe. Specifically, 65% of SMEs in Greece do not have a clear, workable cybersecurity strategy, while less than a third (28%) have a dedicated cybersecurity team or outsource these responsibilities (18%). One of the most important challenges highlighted by one in five Greek companies (20%) is the lack of trained specialists — which is also a global problem.

Significant internal barriers also hinder the ability of SMEs in Greece to respond to growing threats. More than a third (35%) said that management does not sufficiently understand the importance of cybersecurity — a worrying finding, given that, according to Kaspersky’s global data, the average cost of recovering from a successful attack exceeds the entire annual cybersecurity budget of these businesses by 50%. At the same time, an average of 16 such attacks are recorded per year.

Information confusion and uncertainty also prevail in the SME sector. 32% say they do not know whether their current protection measures are sufficient, while 25% doubt that the risks presented by cybersecurity solution providers truly reflect the threats they face. On a more positive note, Greek SMEs seem to have fewer doubts about regulatory requirements and compliance with national and supranational regulations. Only 1 in 10 (10%) do not know whether and how these legal obligations apply to them — a percentage significantly lower than in other European countries (32% in Austria and 35% in France).

Mr. Vlachos emphasizes that all of the above highlights the urgent need for better information, more accessible solutions and enhanced education in the SME sector, as well as closer cooperation between industry, regulatory authorities and businesses.

2025 as a turning point

According to Kaspersky experts, the Greek market is in a special, transitional phase: On the one hand, growing awareness and new regulations are leading to positive changes. On the other hand, the rapid evolution of threats and the vulnerability of small and medium-sized businesses require immediate strengthening of defense mechanisms.

“Cybersecurity is no longer a technical issue, it is a matter of survival,” concludes Vasilis Vlachos. “If SMEs want to maintain their business continuity in an environment where attacks evolve daily, investing in protection must be a key pillar of their business strategy and not an optional expense.”

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