More needs to be done to bolster existing information technology laws to address the issue of viruses, according to Peter Bullock, a partner at Masons Information & Technology Law Group.
'First of all, there is no legal definition of what a virus is,' he says.
'It has to come into one of the better known descriptions of a legal wrong and in Hong Kong it is very limited because the Crimes Ordinance talks about criminal damage and things like that.'
Mr Bullock says that Hong Kong does not have any specific definitions except for a few sections in the Crime Ordinance 'which is reflective of the Computer Misuse Act of 1990 in Britain'.
But even if the Crimes Ordinance is to follow the Act in wording, the definition still falls short of e-mail-borne viruses.
'The Act was an early attempt to deal with hacking and this was pre-internet days,' he adds.
