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Where do you keep data and information about your congregants and donors? Is it in an Excel file on someone's desktop computer, or in an Access database housed on your laptop? If someone were to steal your computer, would the thief suddenly have the names, phones numbers, and addresses of your givers at his fingertips?

If a hacker wormed his way into your desktop, would he find information about people's giving, including checking account numbers? What about your ministry's financial and banking information—where is that kept? Are you vulnerable to outsiders accessing and abusing ministry funds?

It's becoming increasingly easy for personal and financial information to be accessed as more and more churches utilize 21st-century technology. So the question arises: How do you prevent access to sensitive ministry information by those with malicious intent?

E-mail has become the most prevalent form of business and personal written communication. Its popularity, however, is now one of its liabilities, increasing its vulnerability to attacks from hackers. E-mails are often sent using a formatting language known as HTML to enhance their look. Unfortunately, HTML provides opportunities for hackers to embed malicious code that you will never see. Most e-mail programs provide a way to turn off the HTML and view messages in plain text. They won't look as nice, but this is an easy way to increase your protection.

Opening e-mail attachments can also execute harmful code. Many times these attachments have nondescript names or are documents that were never requested. These attachments will not infect a computer unless they are opened. E-mails that contain unsolicited attachments should be deleted without opening them. Some malicious emails even appear to be from known contacts, so if an attachment isn't expected, don't open it no matter who it is from.

Web-based e-mail gives users access to e-mail from any computer on the Internet, making it convenient for those people who travel extensively to communicate with colleagues and friends while away. Web-based e-mail also uses HTML, so it is susceptible to the same malicious coding as HTML e-mail.

Spam e-mail can be coded to track and report back to the sender when a user views the e-mail offer. This lets the sender know that a valid e-mail address has been found and that the user will view spam e-mail. That validation makes your e-mail address worth more to spammers, since they can sell validated e-mail lists to other spammers for more money. So don't open or reply to spam unless you want to receive more of it!

"Surfing the web" can present many hazards that seem benign but can prove to be either annoying or destructive. The programming languages that make web pages so interesting also provide hackers with opportunities to hide their malicious programs. Many of these hidden programs take advantage of flaws in the operating system and other legitimate programs you run on your computer.

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