What is the actual cost of a cyberattack for Belgian companies?

Cyberattacks are still too often seen as a technical IT problem. In reality, they are a strategic business risk with direct financial impact. For Belgian companies and certainly for SMEs a single incident can lead to weeks of downtime and damage running into hundreds of thousands of euros or more.

According to the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB), phishing and account compromise remain the most common attack vectors in Belgium, with a clear year-on-year rise in incidents. Mid-sized organisations in particular are an attractive target today.

The cost of a cyber incident never comes down to a single invoice. It is a combination of direct damage, operational downtime, and hidden losses.

Typical impact for Belgian businesses:

• 💥 Basic incident: €50,000 – €150,000
• 🧨 Serious ransomware attack: €250,000 – €1,500,000+
• ⏱️ Average downtime: 2 to 4 weeks
• 📉 Reputational and customer loss: often long-lasting and difficult to predict

According to CCB figures, phishing and account takeover remain the primary entry points for attackers in Belgian organisations.

But figures only become truly clear when we look at a realistic scenario.

Take a typical Belgian company with:

• 250 employees
• B2B services or manufacturing environment
• Microsoft 365 + ERP + hybrid infrastructure
• small internal IT department (2–6 people)
• MFA not enforced everywhere
• backups present but not systematically tested

This profile is strikingly common among organisations that fall victim to cyber incidents today.

An employee receives an email:

"Your Microsoft 365 session expires today. Please log in again."

The link leads to a fake login page.

Consequence:

• credentials are stolen
• the attacker gains access to the mailbox
• internal communications are exploited to build trust

Without multi-factor authentication, an attacker can often remain active undetected for days.

The attacker:

• maps the network
• gains access to shared drives
• infiltrates ERP systems
• copies customer data and quotes
• plants ransomware without immediate activation

The goal is clear: maximum impact at the right moment.

On a Monday morning, the following suddenly appears:

"Your files have been encrypted. Pay €180,000 in Bitcoin."

Consequences:

• ERP systems go offline
• file servers become unusable
• administration slows down or stops
• production planning is disrupted
• internal communication partially fails

From this point on, an IT incident becomes a business crisis.

During the recovery period, critical processes often come to a standstill:

• order processing
• invoicing
• customer service
• production planning
• internal collaboration

Result:

• 40% to 80% revenue loss during the crisis period
• missed deadlines and contractual risks
• customers switching, temporarily or permanently, to competitors

This is typically the largest hidden cost of a cyber incident.

For an organisation of 100 to 500 employees, the damage often looks like this:

IT recovery and incident response

• Forensics and investigation: €25,000 – €80,000
• System reinstallation: €40,000 – €150,000
• External cybersecurity specialists: €15,000 – €50,000

Operational downtime (the most underestimated cost)

• 2 to 4 weeks of disruption
• Revenue loss: €150,000 – €800,000

GDPR and legal impact

• Data breach notification obligations
• Audits and legal support
• Typical cost: €10,000 – €75,000

Reputational and customer loss

• Difficult to predict precisely, but often: €50,000 – €500,000+

What hits organisations hardest:

• lost revenue
• lost customers
• operational chaos
• reputational damage
• management time consumed entirely by crisis management

Cybersecurity is therefore no longer a purely technical topic.

It is a business risk.

For Belgian companies, the question today is no longer:

"Will we be attacked?"

But:

"What is the impact when it happens?"

Organisations that map their risk in advance not only limit damage, they also protect their continuity, customer relationships, and reputation.