ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE LEVEL OF DIGITALIZATION AND LOSSES CAUSED BY CYBER RISKS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ECONOMIES OF THE EU MEMBER COUNTRIES

In an increasingly interconnected world of sustainable economic development, Europe is in the midst of a digital transformation. The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) acts as a compass to guide policy makers, managers and citizens in this complex process and integrates key sustainability objectives. The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) is based on four main dimensions, defined to measure digital competitiveness and economic sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to analyze, within the member countries of the European Union, the relationship between the level of digitization, measured through the value of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) and the losses caused by cyber risks, as well as that between the GDP value, as an indicator for measuring economic development and growth, and these losses. The research question around which the study was polarized is: The level of digitization constitutes an essential goal for the EU member countries. in order to promote a sustainable economy or is it an opportunity for the expansion of cybercrime? In this context, the objective of the research is to identify the relationships between digital evolution and sustainable economic development. For this, available data for 27 European countries were used, from databases available on the European Commission and Eurostat web pages. The basis of the scientific approach was the empirical research on the analysis of the need for digitization and the vulnerabilities of IT technologies that can generate economic crime. The research methodology is based on the linear regression model to explore, on the one hand, the dynamics of DESI, GDP at the level of EU member countries. and that of losses caused by cyber risks, on the other. In order to quantify the level of losses caused by cyber risks, descriptive and econometric analysis was used in SPSS version 25, analysis of the Pearson correlation coefficient between variables, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), analysis of the Tukey HSD post hoc test ("Honestly Significant Difference") and statistical interference on qualitative data, using the z test, for the categories of variables discussed. The analysis shows that there are statistically significant positive relationships between the dynamics of the DESI Index and GDP, on the one hand, and that of losses caused by cyber risks, on the other, which shows us that digitization can influence the sustainable economic development of EU member countries.