With 2020 upon us there is no doubt that your church has many exciting goals in mind. Is a brush-up on “cyber security” on this list? Probably not, and we understand that.
At Beacon Insurance Agency, we know firsthand how busy church leaders are. It is also daunting to make sense of all the new information on internet security. That is, how to keep your complete online presence safe and secure. Here in Pensacola, our city government was cyber hacked in a scheme so large that it caught the attention of national media outlets. But how does a government incident translate to churches?
Let’s look at the 3 highest internet security threats to churches in 2020.
- “Target Naivety”:Churches of any size may dismiss their church as a target of these evil hacking attempts. After all, don’t hackers go after mega churches? In fact, the opposite is true. Small to medium sized churches don’t see themselves as targets which makes them prime prey.
- Malware: Malware, also known as Malicious Software or Ransom Ware, is a strong threat. It is designed to deny access to data until a ransom is paid. Malware is easily introduced into any organization through phishing emails or by unknowingly visiting an infected website. Read more on Malware from Guide One Insurance here.
- Third Party Vendor Security Gaps: Growing churches outsource many processes which makes perfect sense. Choose third party vendors with tight security measures that are integrated with your total system. Your church app vendor and online tithing vendor are good places to start.
| Church Executive Magazine recounts a cyber attack on an Ohio Parish so sleekly instituted it could happen to anyone: “ Upon a deeper investigation by the FBI, we found that our email system was hacked and the perpetrators were able to deceive us into believing Marous Brothers had changed their bank and wiring instructions … our payments were sent to a fraudulent bank account and the money was then swept out by the perpetrators before anyone knew what had happened.” |
At Beacon Insurance Agency, the difference is in our expertise. Contact us today for a review of your current cyber liability policy or for a new quote @ 850.944.7944.
