HK to become spam capital of the world

Hong Kong could be become the junk email capital of the world following a ruling last week not prosecute a spammer. A magistrate in the former British colony said Ng Ming-sum broke no law when he used the networks of two separate companies to distribute thousands of spam to advertise his own Web business. The problem, it seems, lies in the fact that many companies in Honk Kong have their own email servers. Many of these are old and "open" enabling spammers to use them to distribute junk email. Security experts warned that some companies might not even know that they have a potential problem on their hands. One of the companies, which brought the prosecution, alleged that Ming-sum had "abused their facilities" but the judge disagreed. Now some people in Honk Kong fear that it could become swamped by spammers taking advantage of their "open" servers and lax laws. One IT expert told the Asian bureau of internet.com that the magistrate "...did not have a clue what he was talking about." ®