Some interesting suggestions guys, I'm not sure how I feel about filling my bedroom with cardboard cats. 
 
Problem with giving him other cables to chew on, is that it encourages the behavior. Your not meant to play with them with your hands apparently as they then think it's ok the attack your hands when you are not playing. So the toys I use are on strings at the end of sticks or that I can throw. Problem is you have to use your hands to stop him doing things he shoudn't, so he already has an association with my hands. Sometimes after peaving me off biting me when I've made it clear he's peaving me off, he'll come back with his favourite toy in his mouth so he can fight with his claws in, but bite his toy and not me. Someone looked after him when I had to do a visa run and and was the same with them.
 
Since he killed the USB cable I coated the dead cable and some others in washing up liquid to but him off. Hoping the taste would not be pleasant, it's been really successful, not because of the taste it seams, but the smell. Even the cable that he destroyed doesn't seem to have been touched.
 
Following on for Bitflippers suggestion, I thought maybe of using some plastic tubing like they use in fish tanks, either cutting a spiral or along it's length. He seams to prefer the thinner cables, so this would make it thicker. I think the coloured conduit is more suitable for several cables making the same run, but it's given me the other idea.
 
I have thought about running some tabe over the top, but often, especailly with the temperatures here in the summer the adhesive can appear at the edge. Should I change my mind, it's then left behind. At least if I use it on the fishing tank tubing it will be left behind on the and it's easily replaceable.
 

Try wiping a cable with vinegar and having him smell it. Vinegar is cheap and a cleaner too. Just do not use it in metal.

Mine don't like the feel of bubble wrap. I just have to put it by the cables and they stay away.
Also years ago when growing up we had cats to and using plastic runner turned upside down worked really well.
they don't like the feel of the nibs.
 

Vinigers not a bad shout too, as it's good for removing scent. so he may build up an association through smell to certain cables. being he's stopped in the last few daysm the washing up liquid seems to have done the job, but when it wears off, I'll try a viniger soap mix.
 
I have some bubble wrap, so just play with him I tried seeing his reaction, with his toy got him to walk across it. He didn't seem to mind. At one point he laid on it. Shame I had viision of making bubble wrap braclets and anklets.

We've had a total of 8 cats, currently 3 with maximum of 4 until last year when our oldest tom died after being the terror of the neighbourhood for 18 years.

The only thing we've found that works is to shut the door, or if it must be open then wedge it so the gap's too small for them to get through. And never, ever relax your guard.

Another possibility is that all cats seem irrationally scared of something, the difficult part of the trick being to find out what that thing is, and it's different for every cat. The tom who died last year was frightened of nothing - cats that didn't live with us, dogs, cars, all were just more potential victims. But he was scared witless of a leather hat I have. No idea why, the others sleep on it quite happily, but he'd run at the sight of it.

One of our current females runs away from a plastic covered camping pillow. Another used to keep well away from cables if you moved them, but not if they were stationary - her particular endearing trick was trying to vomit hairballs on guitars, which I suppose might have been criticism of my playing rather than just vandalism.

But, in the end, the only way to stop a really determined cat interacting with expensive or fragile stuff in bad ways is to keep the door shut.

I'm in a studio flat, so not an option. Unless I shut him in the bathroom, or out on the balcony (which I leave the window on, so he's free to go outside when he wants). He's just 4 months old and still on his baby teeth. So a mixture of being active, easily bored and like to feel things with his teeth. 

More 'totally brilliant' (TM) ideas:
 
o install a tiger(1)
o put insanity sauce on the cables(2)
o pass the cables *through* the cat, such that the cat becomes the cable shield (irony bonus!)(3)

1 - you then only have a tiger problem to deal with, they don't bother with cables much or so I've heard
2 - another approach may be required if you find out your cat is a chilli freak
3 - very thick gloves may be required, and the cat can actually still chew on the cables :-(

For some other, not completely r_e_t_a_r_d_ed ideas, try here:
http://www.wikihow.com/Ke...ric-Cords-and-Chargers
 
[Aside: I can't believe that r_e_t_a_r_d is a banned word?!]

I got one of those annunciator devices that go bing-bong when someone opens a door (on Amazon I think). I replaced the bing-bong with a really loud siren and placed it on the dining room table where the cat always liked to jump up on. Not any more. Scared the bejesus out of the cat.
It was a little inconvenient hearing it go off at 4am but it didn't take long for our cat to understand the situation.


Bjorn

OK, a serious suggestion, based on experience*.

Black pepper. Probably doesn't even have to be ground. Just arrange a tray of it, trough, whatever, that the kitten has to get through to get at the cables or that the cables can lie in. If that doesn't do the trick white pepper might. We've found scattering some on top of the compost is quite good at keeping kittens out of flowerpots.

English mustard powder would probably do the trick, but a feline eyeful of that (or finely ground pepper) = trip to the vets and lots of awkward questions to answer.

If you're new to the job of cat servant, then don't despair, things will settle down and one day you too will have the joy of providing a home with all found to a lazy, moulting, hairball-expelling creature that knows it is superior to you because your species goes out to work to provide for cats' every need, not the other way round.

Eventually.

(Don't get me wrong, I like cats, but I've been under their collective thumb for long enough to have no illusions about them).

*All cats are different. While this has worked on some cats at least some of the time, there is no warranty it will work on yours.

Thanks TLW. Cables that stay where they are, are tied back, this seems to remove and desire from him. but cables that change position are the issue, so the pepper won't work. By change position, I mean like headphone cables, or in PSU cables on my small laptop (thankfully ACER used a pretty hard rubber on this as it has endured the brunt of it, but endured) 
 
Since the day I created this, the issue has subsided, but suggestions are still good. The washing up liquid (I think Americans call Dishwasher liquid) seems to have doe the trick through smell more than anything it appears.
 
I am new to kittens, we always had mature cats when I grew up, partly because the were rescued, or they were Kittens before I could remember. I had thought about getting a cat, but not planned it, and my thoughts were for an older female from one of the few rescue centres we have here. Then 3 months ago and found a 3 week old abandoned in the alley that I can see from my desk window. I've learnt a lot in this time, and he maybe one of the best fed cats in Vietnam (not overfed, but he has a good diet). A lot of issues seemed to be resolved by simply playing with him regularly, and the problem behavour comes from the times I don't have time to play, which often makes the problem feel worse for both of us.
 
I teach kids from 4 years and up, so he's really no different.