WCA July 2016

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Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2016
From the Americas
According to co-founder Michael Pitteric, at full strength
the mill will process 50,000 tons of carbon, alloy and
tool-grade steel into flat, round and square steel bar in
one shift.
Indiana has led the USA in steel production for 35
straight years, but layoffs and plant closings have taken
a severe toll on the industry. Nuco, like Posco, sought
local help with its financing and reportedly obtained
$600,000 in incentives from the Indiana Economic
Development Corp on its pledge to create new jobs.
 WLWT News 5 in Cincinnati, Ohio, reported that the
Kentucky House of Representatives on 1st April voted
97-0 in support of a bill that sweetens an economic
incentives package intended to persuade AK Steel (West
Chester, Ohio) to resume full operations at its Ashland
steel mill in northeastern Kentucky. The measure, which
awaits the governor’s signature, would extend existing
incentives and offer new ones that would help offset the
costs of re-starting the blast furnace at the mill.
Citing unfair competition from imported steel, AK
Steel in December shut down the furnace and related
steelmaking operations at Ashland, putting hundreds
of people out of work. The hot-dip galvanising line
that primarily serves automotive customers was kept
running, according to the company.
 Global steel giant ArcelorMittal has permanently idled
the 84" hot strip mill at its Indiana Harbor facility in
East Chicago, Indiana, in accord with the Action 2020
“strategic roadmap” announced by the company when
it posted its 2015 earnings. With 4,770 employees,
Indiana Harbor is the largest integrated steelmaking
facility in the United States.
Karen Caffarini of the Chicago Post-Tribune reported
(2nd April) that the move was expected by the United
Steelworkers local at the mill, who said that the 300
workers there would be reassigned elsewhere onsite
or at the company’s Burns Harbor complex in Illinois,
or out of the area. Arcelor Mittal spokeswoman Mary
Beth Holdford told the Post-Tribune that the company
was considering all options at its mills in the USA and
beyond, to optimise assets but “without layoffs by
leveraging natural attrition.”
Cybersecurity
While energy faces more cyber
attacks than any other USA industry,
shape-shifting malware continues to
plague the individual
As reported on 15th April by Katie Bo Williams in the
Washington-based daily The Hill, researchers at IBM Corp
discovered a new type of malicious software used to
steal from banking customers. To that point in the month,
the so-called GozNym virus — a hybrid of two known
malware strains — had targeted 22 banks, credit unions,
and popular e-commerce platforms in the USA, and two
financial institutions in Canada. The incursions netted the
hackers roughly $4 million. Unlike other cyberattacks that
target either systems or employees of the bank, GozNym
reportedly employs a phishing scheme to trick the customer
into clicking a malicious link in an email. The link installs the
virus on the victim’s computer, where it lies dormant until
the bank account is accessed online.
Etay Maor, a senior fraud prevention strategist at Trusteer,
the Boston-based IBM computer security division, told
the Wall Street Journal that GozNym is able to record and
transmit information in different ways, including recording
keystrokes or taking screen captures of the bank account
screen. According to Mr Maor, IBM believes the attackers
originate from a criminal organisation in Eastern Europe.
 Ms Williams noted that the USA has been cracking
down on Eastern European nationals who profit from
malware. Last Autumn, Russian national Dimitry
Belorossov was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in
prison for his role in distributing and managing banking
malware that infected over 11 million computers
worldwide and is thought to be responsible for over
$500 million in losses. That scheme linked spam emails
and commercial Internet ads to malware to distribute
and install a bot known as Citadel onto victims’
computers. Like Citadel, the GozNym virus discovered
by IBM in April is a Trojan – malware masquerading as
legitimate software.
A testing lab best known for its stamp of approval
on microwaves and TV sets rolls out standards for
Internet-connected products
As well as enhancing awareness and protections at the
government level, President Barack Obama’s Cybersecurity
National Action Plan (CNAP), released in February, aims at
empowering Americans to take better control of their own
digital security.
In response, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in April
announced its Cybersecurity Assurance Program
(CAP), which uses a new set of standards to test
network-connected products for software vulnerabilities.
The new UL certification is intended for both vendors
of Internet of Things (IoT) products and buyers of those
products who want to mitigate their cybersecurity risks. It
is also expected to be used for testing and certifying IoT
devices within critical infrastructures such as energy and
utilities.
UL, an independent provider of safety-focused advice,
testing and certifications for over 120 years, worked with
the US Department of Homeland Security to develop
CAP. As reported by Matt Hamblen of Computerworld,
the Northbrook, Illinois-based company developed the
new testing standards with input from industry officials
and academics as well as the government. (“UL Takes on
Cybersecurity Testing and Certification,” 5th April)
Ken Modeste, leader of cybersecurity technical services
at UL, noted that information on the software elements in
a given device is not as readily available as with hardware,
where flaws can be traced to a known source. Thus one
cause of security breaches is that remedial “patches”
are not always incorporated into the finished product.
Mr Modeste told Computerworld that CAP will help