Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica, Vol 7, No 1 (2011)

Abstract

Computer crime, also referred as cyber-crime, is considered today one of the main leading
problems in the ongoing global economic crisis and an impediment in the development of many
countries. Objectives of this work are: to determine the evolution of cyber-crime during the current
economic crisis, to emphasize the severity of this problem and the urgent need to limit its impact
worldwide, to determine consumers perceptions regarding this phenomenon in Romania. Prior Work
related to this issue was conducted by the Computer Security Institute in United States, International
Computer Protection Agency, Symantec and Ponemon Institute. In their studies, these institutions
have revealed many of cyber-crime features and proposed valuable solutions for decreasing its
impact. 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 almost
80% of respondents were victims of cyber-crime at least once and more than 87% of respondents
never reported these crimes to the police. As regards Implications, the study can offer support to
specialized institutions, while academics can use these findings for further research. The Value of this
paper consists of relevant findings regarding cyber-crime issue in Romania.