Cybersecurity Update – Tune in weekdays at 30 minutes past the hour for the latest cybersecurity news on The Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris (6-10 a.m.) and The DorobekInsider with Chris Dorobek (3-7 p.m.). Listen live at FederalNewsRadio.com or on the radio at 1500 and 820 AM in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

• Could someone be listening on your cell phone calls? The answer, is yes! But how can you be sure? Newsweek reports that ever since smart phones became more popular, spyware applications have also become commonplace. The spyware is often perfectly legal. Once the app is installed on the phone, you can track a person’s email, texts, listen to their phone calls, use their phone as a microphone, and track their whereabouts. But, experts say, it is nearly impossible to tell if someone else is tracking you, because of the way the spyware is installed. Jeff Troy, acting deputy assistant director for the FBI’s Cyber Division, says that there is a need for additional cyber laws to address this.
• Lockheed Martin is beefing up its cybersecurity. The Washington Business Journal reports that the Bethesda-based contractor is working with a sophisticated “whitelisting” application from CoreTrace Corp to secure its IronClad USB drives. The application protects files and data on each IronClad device. It also keeps government and corporate networks protected from a large array of security threats. Lockheed says the whitelisting application blocks unwanted programs from executing. Users create a list of approved programs. Anything that doesn’t make the list won’t operate on the drive.
• The health insurer running Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states has notified 470,000 individual insurance customers about a security breach that may have exposed medical records, credit card numbers and other sensitive information. WellPoint said the problem stemmed from an online program customers can use to track the progress of their application. It was fixed in March.

Check out all of Federal News Radio’s coverage of cybersecurity issues here.

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