Romania ranks seventh in the world as a source of attack traffic on the internet, according to news organization Bloomberg. With 2.8 percent of global cyber-attacks coming from Romania in the last quarter of 2012, the country sat between India in eighth place and Brazil in sixth. Bloomberg used information from Akamai Technologies, which supports businesses in providing high-speed content.

China came out top for hackers, being the origin of 41 percent of cyber-attacks in the final quarter of 2012. The USA came second, with 10 percent, while Turkey came third, deemed the origin of 4.7 percent of the world's attack traffic at the end of 2012. Also in the top ten were Russia (4), Taiwan (5), Italy (9) and neighboring Hungary in tenth place. Between them, the top ten countries are the source of three quarters of global cyber-attacks.

Hacking appears to be on the up in Romania, according to Bloomberg, with the country's share of global cyber-attacks rising from 2.7 percent in the third quarter of 2012 and 2.6 percent in Q4 2011.

Râmnicu Vâlcea is “a haven for cyber criminals,” reads the Bloomberg article, referring to what are described as “several news reports.” The town, which is also the capital of Valcea County, lies about 200km north-west of Bucharest, south of the Carpathian mountains. No reason is given why the small Romanian town in the foothills of the Carpathians is a favorite spot for hackers. Râmnicu Vâlcea is also the location of Romania's beleaguered chemical factory Oltchim.

See Bloomberg's Top Ten Hacking Countries slide-show.

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photo source: Wikipedia Commons