The U.S. Federal Reserve detected more than 50 cyber breaches between 2011 and 2015, with several incidents described internally as "espionage," according to Fed records.

Swift, the vital global financial network that western financial services companies, institutions and banks use for all payments and transfer billions of dollars every day, warned its customers yesterday evening that it was aware of cyber fraud and a number of recent “cyber incidents” where attackers had sent fraudulent messages over its system and $81 million was apparently stolen from a central bank.

The Federal Trade Commission has settled a lawsuit accusing hotel group Wyndham Worldwide Corp of failing to properly safeguard customer information, in a case arising from three data breaches affecting more than 619,000 customers.

Contemplating the growing threat of a cyber attack on Wall Street, brokers and exchanges, the first thing to look at is the main technology software and service providers. Most of those stocks can be found as holdings in the PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF

Microcap stocks are one of the few asset classes where the average investor, through disciplined research, can compete with institutional traders.

The world of cyber security has grown as high visibility attacks captivate media attention whether they surround companies in the private sector (like Sony, Target and JP Morgan) or in the public sector where governments are on the verge of “virtual wars.”

The rise of cyber crime threatens the links between traders and markets, and will only accelerate as investors boost their reliance on technology. What follows is a conversation about the markets, cyber security and the coming challenges that investors and traders face in the 21st century economy.

Security researchers say they have uncovered clandestine attacks across three continents on the routers that direct traffic around the Internet, potentially allowing suspected cyberspies to harvest vast amounts of data while going undetected.

U.S. banks urged the Federal Reserve to take the lead in defending the financial services industry from cyber attacks by working with federal counterterrorism, intelligence and law enforcement agencies, documents show.