Federal agencies have issued a cybersecurity warning to churches, urging them to secure livestreams, donor platforms, and Wi-Fi networks. Here’s what your ministry needs to do now.
I’m a Network Administrator in my day job and this is all great opsec. Honestly, I think it would benefit any church that has a digital footprint and that has enough money to do so, to hire a cybersecurity consultant and do some penetration testing to find and fix vulnerabilities in their setup. I mean, ideally, people in the church who have these skills should be helping as a way of ministering to the Body, but if that’s not an option, get the help you need elsewhere.
My church has a PC in a little used room that anyone can sign on. It has a generic PW. I know my thoughts and I'm not IT type guy. Your thoughts please
Terry, as our church IT guy. I understand a computer needs to be available but I would make sure this computer is on the guest network vlan. So it doesn't have direct access to the main network because its not only the computer you're protecting, its also the port. Think what could happen if someone plugs their laptop directly into the wall lan jack. Now they have network access running thier software.
Network Admin here, and yes. Our church networks (and home networks for that matter) should be segmented as a baseline. Having a dedicated guest network for people visiting to use is good, and it’s a safer places for shared devices like the one you’re describing.
I’m a Network Administrator in my day job and this is all great opsec. Honestly, I think it would benefit any church that has a digital footprint and that has enough money to do so, to hire a cybersecurity consultant and do some penetration testing to find and fix vulnerabilities in their setup. I mean, ideally, people in the church who have these skills should be helping as a way of ministering to the Body, but if that’s not an option, get the help you need elsewhere.
Thank you for this post .
My church has a PC in a little used room that anyone can sign on. It has a generic PW. I know my thoughts and I'm not IT type guy. Your thoughts please
Terry, as our church IT guy. I understand a computer needs to be available but I would make sure this computer is on the guest network vlan. So it doesn't have direct access to the main network because its not only the computer you're protecting, its also the port. Think what could happen if someone plugs their laptop directly into the wall lan jack. Now they have network access running thier software.
Network Admin here, and yes. Our church networks (and home networks for that matter) should be segmented as a baseline. Having a dedicated guest network for people visiting to use is good, and it’s a safer places for shared devices like the one you’re describing.