Embracing technology as the pastor: Lastpass

Since the internet came along, the sheer number of passwords that you're requested to choose has sky-rocketed (if there is internet in heaven, one thing I'll be grateful for is that we won't have to worry about security measures!).

Now you could choose to have a couple of passwords and use them everywhere, but it is a dangerous game to play.  If one account is hacked, then someone potentially has access to all your accounts that use that same password. 

So to be safe you should have different passwords for every online account you have.  Moreover they should be difficult to guess, meaning they should be reasonably long, include upper case and lower case characters, numbers and special characters.

But how does one feeble brain remember all those passwords?  It doesn't.  Which is why you need something like Lastpass.

Lastpass is a free program that stores your passwords and then automatically fills them in on websites for you through an add-on to your web browsers.  And in order to make sure your passwords are strong, Lastpass can also generate very strong passwords for you to use that you would never remember yourself.

Lastpass also stores other information like contact details and credit card information and so can fill in web forms for you thus saving you time.  

Basically you dump all your sensitive information into one place, Lastpass encrypts it and then makes it accessible by one single password - which is the only password you need to remember. (Now of course, if someone hacks Lastpass you're undone, but their security is better than pretty much all websites you use - particularly as employees don't even have access to your account).

So I encourage you to use Lastpass, it'll save you a tonne of memory space and time.

But before I finish, I should also mention a tip on choosing passwords as a Christian.  For passwords that you do enter in manually (such as the Lastpass master password), choose Bible verses you're trying to learn.  This will give you a marvellous opportunity to regularly practise the verse.  By using memory verses, you will also be tempted to regularly change your password, another good security measure.   And to add to the strength of your passwords, include some chapter and verse numbers, even punctuation.