The Growing Global Threat of Cyber-crime given the Current Economic Crisis: A Study regarding Internet Malicious Activities in Romania

Computer crime, also referred as cyber-crime, is considered today one of the main leadingproblems in the ongoing global economic crisis and an impediment in the development of manycountries. Objectives of this work are: to determine the evolution of cyber-crime during the currenteconomic crisis, to emphasize the severity of this problem and the urgent need to limit its impactworldwide, to determine consumers perceptions regarding this phenomenon in Romania. Prior Workrelated to this issue was conducted by the Computer Security Institute in United States, InternationalComputer Protection Agency, Symantec and Ponemon Institute. In their studies, these institutionshave revealed many of cyber-crime features and proposed valuable solutions for decreasing itsimpact. The Approach used in this paper was a survey among Romanian consumers regarding cybercrime.A total number of 110 respondents participated in this survey. Results showed that almost80% of respondents were victims of cyber-crime at least once and more than 87% of respondentsnever reported these crimes to the police. As regards Implications, the study can offer support tospecialized institutions, while academics can use these findings for further research. The Value of thispaper consists of relevant findings regarding cyber-crime issue in Romania.