US Steel Says China Is Using Cyber Stealth To Steal Its Secrets (npr.org)

An anonymous reader writes: U.S. Steel Corp. filed a trade complaint with the International Trade Commission: "The Chinese industry has formed a cartel that sets purchase and sale prices, and controls production and export volumes to target export markets. The Chinese industry has used its government to steal U.S. Steel's closely guarded trade secrets and uses those trade secrets to produce advanced steel products it could not make on its own." The steelmaker based in Pittsburgh argues its Chinese rivals must be investigated and that they will "use every tool available to fight for fair trade." The ITC has 30 days to review the complaint and determine whether or not it's worth investigating. In the meantime, China's Commerce Ministry said the complaints "have no factual basis," urging the ITC to reject U.S. Steel's case. The investigation will likely take a while if the ITC decides to proceed with an investigation, as they'll be dealing with three separate issues: price fixing, false labeling to avoid duties, and theft of trade secrets.

Comments

obviously 266% duties imposed in march failed

[sittingnut]

usa imposed 266% duty on chinese steel imports in march.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-...

seems that failed to help push overpriced bad products

Re:obviously 266% duties imposed in march failed

[inode_buddha]

... and thats not NEARLY enough by an order of magnitude. (disclaimer: I have been in the biz for 25 yrs, and the chinese stuff is the worst...)

Re:obviously 266% duties imposed in march failed

[ShanghaiBill]

usa imposed 266% duty on chinese steel imports in march.

These sorts of tariffs tend to be counter-productive. America has way more users of steel than producers of steel. So this will raise costs for American car companies, appliance manufacturers, and everyone else that builds stuff out of steel, making their products less competitive. So instead of importing Chinese steel, we will import more cars, and finished goods.

Re:obviously 266% duties imposed in march failed

[TheRealHocusLocus]

Well it sure isn't helping that Obama is trying to bankrupt US coal producers whose financial health directly impacts US steel production. In the place of a real presidential cabinet where things are weighed with all factors and research is done before taking a position... we have had the Department Of CO2 Is Evil And Fuck Everything Else calling the shots. I would go so far as to assume these 'save de planet coal haters' did not even know that coal is a critical precursor to steel production, which is a keystone of domestic manufacture. It was probably on page 3 of the memo.

And Hillary also thinks that intermittent energy can replace constant coal in electricity production.
March of the stupids.
We have met the enemy and he (and she!) is within U.S.

Criminal yes, Poor Security yes

[Nethemas the Great]

Sure China likes to commit industrial espionage. Everyone know that. However, when are corporations (individuals) going to stop hiding behind laws--in the hopes that they will save them--and start taking responsibility for their own security? When in the history of the world has a law stopped a sufficiently motivated criminal?

Re:Criminal yes, Poor Security yes

[axewolf]

You say that like american business didn't invent modern industrial espionage. Did you miss WW2?

Re:Criminal yes, Poor Security yes

[Gravis Zero]

when are corporations (individuals) going to stop hiding behind laws--in the hopes that they will save them

Just as soon as they holding executives liable for their negligence (corporate responsibility) or after it starts putting companies out of business (survival of the fittest).

Industrial Espionage

[rmdingler]

Sometimes we forget: It's not just governments spying on other governments or their citizens... sometimes this is done for fun and profit.

Just don't pretend you've a right to the high road. Chances are, your gov't engages in this subterfuge, too.

Re:China launches cyberattacks against thebUS

[WarJolt]

And Slashdot will defend China because most of the users here inexplicably hate the US.

That's bullshit. American /.ers hate either American big business (aka wallstreet) or they hate the American government (aka mainstreet). Some /.ers hate both. This is no different than the rest of America. In China they are basically the same thing, so you're just wrong.

You gave it to them

[Anonymous Coward]

The Chinese industry has used its government to steal U.S. Steel's closely guarded trade secrets and uses those trade secrets to produce advanced steel products it could not make on its own."

Really? Really?! You could have fooled me with all those US steel engineers flying out with specs and plans and installing new hardware and software and generally doing just about everything to move the entire fucking industrial supply chain out to China to cut down on labour costs. Is there a single thing that US steel manufacturers didn't teach their Chinese sub-contractors to do over the last 20 years? Out of curiosity. Indulge me here.

Keep IP off the Internet and...

[Streetlight]

Why do companies put their most secret and important intellectual property (IP) on servers connected to the Internet? What they should do is put phony, but looking somewhat reasonable, IP on their "secure" servers. The IP thieves should have some significant difficulty getting at it to make them feel like it's the real stuff. When they spend millions or billions building a factory to duplicate the stuff and then find out it was bogus, so much the better. Maybe the thieves will stop stealing and spend their money and time on innovation.

Re:Keep IP off the Internet and...

[DivineKnight]

We really need a filter for these kind of stories on /. I mean, the problem and solution is always the same: Company A has no network security because 1.) they went cheap, and the solution is stop doing that.

Whining to the government after your open-barn-door network gets cracked (if barely, would not be surprised to find an anonymous FTP running on the company's production servers) is merely an attempt to keep your own 'cost-center' low by shoving the problem off onto someone else.

Wow, what a surprise...

[mikeiver1]

Maybe if American companies didn't put their most sensitive information on servers maintained by cheap out of country IT workers and protect said data with cheap off the shelf hardware configured by the cheapest IT staff they can lay hands on they would not find themselves being literally put out of business by their lesser competition.

Wow

[rsilvergun]

I'm shocked we managed to get a Tariff through. It's got nothing to do with bad products. 266% is not enough when they treat their workers as disposable and spew poison into the air. If we go back to doing that we could compete too. I think they call it "Race to the Bottom".

Re:Wow

[inode_buddha]

Believe it or not, the south african stuff was higher quality but the worker treatment was probably worse than the chinese even. That is not to say that it was particularly good, it was just relatively somewhat better. If I want good stuff from a modern mill, I get Thyssen-Krupp. That said, the best structural steel I ever used, bar none, was prewar Bethlehem old stock. That stuff was simply amazing. And yes indeed, its a race to the bottom for the workers (me) while the bosses are racing to the top....

translation: management whine

[dltaylor]

We don't want to spend the resources to properly secure our data and infrastructure, so we're going to whine about it, instead, and hope we can get someone else (like the US taxpayers) to solve the problem we've created for ourselves.

Mr Pot meet Mr Kettle

[IckySplat]

> and uses those trade secrets to produce advanced steel products it could not make on its own
Airbus *cough* Boeing *cough*

Should have patented it

[AK Marc]

So, China is steeling trade secrets. The kinds of secrets Patents were invented to protect. Since the steel companies didn't try to protect their inventions in the ways set up that greatly benefit corporations, they deserve to lose them to the Public Domain (where trade secrets lost end up). The people of the US are better off, now that we can legally use the same tech. It's corporate greed. They didn't want to have it exclusively for only 14+ years, so kept it secret until they lost it. They gambled and lost, and had the intention to keep it hidden forever.

Further proof that IP laws don't work.

Re:China launches cyberattacks against thebUS

[liquid_schwartz]

... or they hate the American government (aka mainstreet)....

I must have missed the part where the American government is mainstreet. I don't think that many positions that the government takes including its stances on NSA, civil forfeiture, H1B and immigration in general, free trade, foreign aid, and a great many other topics represent main street. Indeed the US has been shown to be an oligarchy where what government does bears little resemblance to what the people want. Citations:

http://www.washingtontimes.com...