Barton Gellman

Barton Gellman is TIME's contributing editor at large, a fellow at the Center on Law and Security and author of the bestselling Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he is a mild-mannered reporter who dons the cloak of CounterSpy to protect confidential sources.

Articles from Contributor

Why I Can Guess Your iPad Password

Friend of mine, a smart journalist, had his iPad stolen. He couldn’t help that — the thief broke into his house. But his private, personal data wasn’t stolen, exactly. Donated, more like. He had no passcode set on the iPad. All his email, calendar, address book, and work documents were free for the taking. Oh, yeah. He had the iPad …

IronClad: A Tiny, Secure Computer in Your Pocket

One common puzzle for the security-minded is how to work with confidential data on the road. Sometimes you can’t bring your laptop, or don’t want to. But working on somebody else’s machine exposes you to malware and leaves behind all kinds of electronic trails. Even if you keep your files on a portable drive, Windows will scatter …

Passwords: How To Stop Ignoring The Expert Advice

By now you’ve heard endless warnings about the risk of short, trivial passwords. There’s a good chance you ignore them. Let’s talk about why that is and what you can do about it.

To begin with, it really does matter. Easy to guess passwords (12345, pet’s name, kid’s name, birthdate, etc) really do expose you to snooping and identity …

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