Send the bandwidth thieves to the big house

If somebody walked into your office and stole half your computers, they would be arrested and sent to prison. If somebody walked into your house and stole half your CD collection or half your furniture or electrical goods they would be arrested and sent to prison.

Yet when somebody comes into your office - albeit virtually - and steals half your bandwidth we seem to have problems quantifying this in quite the same way. Even though network infrastructure accounts for a huge expenditure for companies.

With spam accounting for more than 50 per cent of all email traffic companies are losing half their bandwidth to unsolicited email - half their IT investment is being taken out of commission by spammers. The difference between that and a physical theft is that with spam you can't even claim it on the insurance.

But in Italy they are now taking a harder line on this issue. Spammers in Italy who are caught sending unsolicited email are set for up to three years imprisonment for their crimes - and they're very unlikely to find much sympathy.

Opponents may argue that this is a victimless crime - an annoyance rather than a violation of the individual or the company, but that argument doesn't really hold sway these days.

Figures suggest that in the US alone spam costs businesses $10bn. The end result is all that is important. If the losses occur through, theft, arson, vandalism, embezzlement or cyber crime, the cost and the culpability are all that are at issue.

However, the problem only really begins here. While the Italian government are to be applauded for their intent, it is, unfortunately, a hollow gesture. Most of the world's spam originates from servers based in the Far East. A handful of clued-up spammers chose the friendliest location to base their operations and are milking the jurisdictional safety for all it's worth.

These people will not be put off by the knowledge that what they are doing is frowned upon in Italy. However, if every country were to follow the Italian example, then we would really be talking, but sadly that is a very big 'if'.

While Western businesses may advocate such a move, there are still plenty of governments in this world who really don't give a damn about your bandwidth, because they generally have far more pressing concerns.

It will be technology, not stricter laws, that wins this battle.