The financial sector has been identified as the most attacked by hackers in an annual review of hacking activity by security firm Counterpane and email management company MessageLabs. The finance and banking sectors picked up nearly 40 per cent of all Trojan attacks last year, and manufacturing was the next worst affected at 22 per cent. “The new Trojan programs do not have to trick victims into revealing their password. Instead, they wait for the victim to perform their normal banking business. While the victim checks their balance, the Trojan silently siphons money out of the account.” However, the most common target for spyware was the pharmaceuticals sector, which received nearly half of all spyware infections.