We don’t pay much attention to the quality of our passwords – until they get hacked. With more and more data stored online, a hacked password is a compromised life. This is particularly problematic because two-thirds of people use the same passwords across accounts. Crack the password for one account, and the hacker has your whole online presence at their disposal. Scary, huh?

And yet, many people have very hackable passwords. Not sure if your password is rubbish? Check out the ‘25 worst passwords of 2011‘, the ‘Top hackable passwords‘ infographic, or run your passwords through the ‘How secure is my password?‘ checker, or these password strength tools. Interestingly, Twitter has a list of passwords that can’t be used by its users.

Here’s 5 tips for creating and managing your passwords. While any password can be hacked, these tips will help reduce the risks and save you a lot of grief:

1. Don’t use the same password for each account.  If you use 1Password (see below), here’s how you can check for duplicate passwords.
2. Don’t use personal details (names, nicknames, birthdays, etc).
3. Don’t use a dictionary word or a common word that’s easily guessable. Some password hackers run programs that churn through dictionary terms.
4. Do use a combination of numbers, characters and case-sensitive letters.
5. Do use a minimum of 8 characters. The more characters, the more secure.

Here’s some more tips from the Gmail blog and Productivity 501.

I use a program called 1Password to manage my passwords. It works on Mac and PC, iPhone and Android and has a bunch of super-useful features. You can learn how to use it here. Once you’ve signed-up (and there’s a 30-day free trial), check out the 3-minute expert tour. LastPass is a similar service (but I haven’t used it so can’t comment on how good it is).

One of the best features of 1Password is its random password generator. This tool creates a secure password for you, and you can create and save this password in your 1Password account when you sign-up for a new account.

Make 2012 the ‘year of the secure password’, and take some time to secure your online presence.

Thank you for your support of Communicate Jesus in 2011. Here’s a list of the most viewed posts of 2011.

These are posts that were created in 2011 – there’s still a ‘long tail‘ in operation – the most viewed post every day is a post from 2009 – ‘30 ideas for community outreach‘!

1. 15 examples of church newsletters and bulletins
2. Video: ONE (promo for John Piper/John Lennox event)
3. 10 church welcome packs
4. 10 common mistakes in Facebook advertising
5. 7 creative Easter marketing concepts
6. Video Bible readings at City on a Hill
7. Billboard: Dear Aussie Muslims
8. 5 reasons to use video for church Bible readings
9. A pre-service video to introduce newcomers to church
10. 7 more ideas for Easter marketing campaigns

I look forward to continuing to serve you in 2012.

I started pondering the pros and cons of buying Christian books online when I discovered that I could buy a book (Wayne Grudem’s ‘Systematic Theology’) for $22 cheaper online than from my local Christian bookstore.

Earlier this week, Tim Challies shared his thoughts on buying from the local Christian bookstore versus buying on Amazon. He wrote this article because:

“I regularly receive emails rebuking me for supporting Amazon by pointing readers there after I review a book. Sometimes I receive emails rebuking me for supporting any online retailer, whether that is Amazon or a Christian ecommerce bookstore. According to the people who write me, I ought to point readers to their local, community bookstores. But I am not convinced that there is an “ought” in this situation—that one option is morally superior to the other.’”

It was a good discussion, but didn’t cover all of the arguments for and against. I wrote these up when I first started to think through this topic – and here they are. What would you add to these lists?

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