Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices - Blogs

February 13, 2014

Hackable

"12345" is not a good password. Apparently neither is the word "password."

Such are the good lessons shared by Nina Nicholason in a blog, Geeks for God: Evangelism in the Electronic Era. She shares a list of the worst passwords of 2013. Some of them are obvious, even though in my early online days, I might have used a few of these. Others somehow have inexplicable busted through the top: monkey? shadow? azerty?

Nevertheless, the blog is an excellent reminder of the importance of paying attention to passwords. This isn't necessarily a ministry-enhancing topic, but it certainly can be seen as a vital practice. I know several smart and savvy people who have been hacked or fallen victim to a hackee's email scam. And how many times a week do you get a desperate note from someone claiming to have had a purse stolen in Europe or promising a million-dollar windfall from a Nigerian cousin?

When I was on diocesan staff, about once a month, we would get a call from a priest or well-known layperson. Please send out a note that I'm not stranded in Italy. I'm in my own house in central Ohio. Somebody hacked into my email. Another common inquiry was from well-intentioned folks who had received an email purportedly from the presiding bishop. Unless you've been in conversation with her, this is most likely a hack. And it happens often enough that the communications office of The Episcopal Church asks folks to report to them any instances (Contact Neva Rae Fox at publicaffairs@episcopalchurch.org).

The blog offers some helpful suggestions about developing passwords that you'll remember but that won't be easy pickings for virtual thieves. There are also applications and websites that will help store all of your various passwords, locked behind a super-duper secret one. I've used a program called LastPass, which worked really well.

Communication and emails can be complicated enough without leaving an open invitation for ne'er-do-wells to wreak havoc. And now I'm off to update my passwords. I guess "letmein" wasn't such a great choice, after all.