Month: October 2018

Metal recycling has become an increasingly important factor in environmental as well as economic outcomes. After all, metal is a finite resource. Society lessens the demand for natural resources through recycling. In doing so, we are able to meet our goals of cost reduction. We can effectively manage limited resources, and reduce landfill utilization. In the process of conserving natural resources, we also save the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption.

North American countries have gained prominence in the global recycled metal market in the last few years due to the region’s expanding electrical and electronics sector. With an increasing demand for consumer electronics, the region’s scrap metal industry is expected to see massive growth in the coming years. On the other hand, it may not be as fast as the growth in developing countries.

Let’s take a look at the factors driving the growth of the global reprocessed metal market.

The Rise of the Global Recycled Metal Market: North America

The rise of the North American recycled metal industry can be attributed to the increasing number of E&E companies that have been working proactively to help reduce the problem of e-waste.

Just recently, an aluminum recycling company called Novelis acquired Aleris, one of the region’s leading manufacturer of recycled aluminum products. You might know them for supplying products to aerospace, defense, automotive, construction and packaging industries. Back in 2016, they used up about 734,000 metric tons of recycled aluminum to create their products.

For Novelis, the acquisition is expected to be beneficial. They get to expand their business and obtain Aleris’s large consumer base.

As consumers become more conscious of their impact on the environment, you can anticipate an increase in the demand for metal recycling. In turn, more activities that lead to loss of biodiversity such as mining will be put in a negative light. Due to the growing concern for the environment, regional governments and companies will adopt the necessary practices for recycling metals. For instance, they could set up scrap collection centers where you can hand over gadgets and equipment you no longer use.

When more private companies and regulatory boards become aware of the benefits of recycling metals, they get to boost the commercialization scale of this business space. In turn, you may observe the widespread consumption of recycled metal products across various industry verticals such as food and beverage, packaging, aerospace, and construction. Towards the end of 2024, you should see this market amass a revenue of $125 billion.

The Rise of the Global Recycled Metal Market: Developing Countries

As for developing countries especially in Latin America, the growth of their metal recycling market is predicted to grow faster than North American countries. Favorable conditions in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Valenzuela in terms of attracting capital investment projects will drive this massive growth.

Rapid industrialization and urbanization are also considered important factors in the growth of the metal recycling market. In countries such as China, India, and Brazil, the rising income and improved spending capacity of consumers are making a significant impact on the market’s growth. Moreover, the increased demand for metal recycling across various industries such as automotive, medical and healthcare contribute to this robust development.

In the Asia Pacific and the Middle Eastern regions, strong urbanization and industrialization will expand their construction industries. As a result, it will influence the demand for reprocessed metal in subsequent years.

Much like in North American countries, the growth of the metal recycling market in developing countries will also be driven by private and public sectors.  Their adoption and encouragement of sustainable practices will reinforce the need for metal recycling. On the other hand, the government’s restriction on free and fair trade of scrap metals will pose a threat to the market’s growth.  The lack of organized waste collection practices is also likely to hamper the growth of this market.

Takeaway

As the metal recycling industry continues to find widespread applications for products in end-user industries, you should witness a gradual increase in demand for these products. This solid demand is going to have a significant influence on the overall reprocessed metal market industry size in the next few years. Moreover, increased regulations and policies for the management and disposal of e-waste will impact the market in the years to come.

To learn more about how metal recycling can benefit you, please contact us today.

In an increasingly digital world, you are becoming more and more susceptible to data breaches. Most of the time, you can prevent these threats by implementing advanced security programs. But despite such robust solutions, you can still be vulnerable to data leaks. If you don’t educate your employees on cybersecurity, they may be your weakest link.

It’s the lack of basic company policies and procedures that often lead employees to unwittingly cause security incidents through negligent actions. According to the 2018 Cost of Data Breach, a study conducted by Ponemon Institute, 25% of data breaches in the U.S. are triggered by human error, including one’s failure to properly delete data from devices.

Other preventable errors that caused data leaks were clicking on malicious links that were part of phishing attacks, misconfigured servers, and network devices.

Misconfigured Servers

The report suggests that 70% of data loss happened because of misconfigured cloud storage servers, databases, and networks. More cybercriminals are aware of the existence of such misconfigured cloud servers, and they will continue to target companies this way if no one will do anything about it. The number of breaches due to such lapses increased by 424% from the previous year’s record.

Data leaks caused by negligence now happen half as frequent as security attacks, the report shows. Costs of data breaches vary depending on their cause. With negligent breaches, they cause U.S. companies $128 per compromised record.  On the other hand, the cost also varies by industry. For example, data leaks in the financial industry cost institutions two times more than the healthcare sector.

Phishing Attacks

One-third of the data leaks were due to phishing attacks. The report is consistent with the findings of another study that was published recently. In Baker Hostetler’s 2018 Data Security Incident Response Report, they found that phishing attacks continue to place sensitive information at risk. More importantly, the success of these threats was primarily caused by a few common mistakes that employees and vendors made.

Even large organizations armed with highly-advanced solutions often fall victim to phishing scams. Snapchat is one of them. As you probably already know, employees of the social media platform received bogus emails from a person impersonating the company CEO. In the email, the hacker asked for payroll information. Unfortunately, one HR employee disclosed the information.

According to Baker Hostetler, both highly-skilled and unsophisticated hackers use phishing as a tool to obtain direct network access. They may use it to trick employees into wiring money to their accounts. They also use it to deploy malware and ransomware. For victims of such security threats, the consequences can be costly. Plus, the incidents are often difficult to investigate.

So, what can organizations do to prevent such incidents from happening?

Preventing Data Breaches

Companies need to adopt sophisticated and comprehensive IT security programs. It must cover a range of solutions that can help prevent and detect possible attacks. You can even opt to use physical security keys to protect employees and the company from hackers. If you haven’t heard, Google hasn’t had a confirmed instance of an account takeover since their staff started using security keys.

However, having a robust software or hardware solutions are never enough. If employees continue to be unaware of the risks and consequences of cyber-attacks, the organization will remain susceptible to such threats. Thus, it’s vital that you take a proactive approach to educate your employees about cybersecurity.

Training can help your staff understand the impact of cyber incidents. You can explain the consequences of their actions on the financial health of your business and customer trust. You can, for example, go over certain scenarios of what may happen if they opened important work documents using public Wi-Fi networks or personal emails on their work computer.

By teaching your people how to recognize and respond to cyber threats, you will be able to prevent malicious attacks that your security systems can’t detect such as a seemingly innocent email or a work-related phone call.

More importantly, you need to let your staff understand that cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility. In doing so, you can ensure that your employees won’t be your weakest link but your strongest line of defense.

Recycling your IT hardware is an important step to preventing data breaches. To learn more about how Securis can help protect your data, please contact us today.