According to the American security firm Counterpane and the email management company MessageLabs, financial institutions suffered nearly 40% of Trojan attacks last year, while manufacturing facilities accounted for 22%.
“Hackers are employing many clever tricks to bypass even the strongest authentication mechanisms“, asserted Alex Shipp, an analyst at MessageLabs. “The new Trojan programs do not trick users into revealing their passwords. They wait until the victim performs a normal transaction and quietly withdraw money from their accounts.”
Meanwhile, the favorite target of spyware is pharmaceutical organizations, with over 50% of spyware aimed at this sector, followed by the insurance industry.
Counterpane also details the common attack methods currently in use. One of the most effective tricks is embedding a virus in a Word file disguised as a job application and sending it to a company. This type of attack was described by former hacker Kevin Mitnick in his book, The Art of Deception.
