By Carrie Brown McWhorter
The Alabama Baptist
Free wireless Internet, or Wi-Fi, can allow congregants to post social media updates in real time, access Bible study apps during lessons or download podcasts that a pastor references in a sermon. Easy access to the Internet can bring problems as well, which is why cyber security experts recommend churches carefully consider their technology plans before offering Wi-Fi on their campuses.
With the proliferation of free Wi-Fi in restaurants, libraries and coffee shops, churches see the service as another way to reach out to the community and aid ministry leaders in ministry work, according to Justin Coleman, an associate with Simms Showers LLP, a Washington-area law firm, who concentrates on church and nonprofit law.
“Wireless Internet networks are already a stable fixture in many churches, used by many church staffs to carry out their daily duties. But there is a movement among churches to provide Wi-Fi to the entire congregation for a variety of reasons,” Coleman wrote on the firm’s blog in May 2014.
Alternative hang out
For example free Wi-Fi might encourage college and high school students to study and hang out at church or provide an alternative to home or coffee shops for those who do a lot of their work online.
“In other cases Wi-Fi access is used by worship leaders to integrate technology into church services, redirecting the use of mobile devices from being a distraction during Sunday service to becoming part of worship instead,” Coleman wrote.
Free Wi-Fi brings risks as well, as a Catholic church in Missouri found out in 2013. Local officials seized the church’s computers after pornography downloads were traced to the church’s IP address. Authorities later determined that the downloads were most likely from someone using the church’s unsecured Wi-Fi network.
Illegal downloads
Other risks of Wi-Fi include unauthorized church members gaining access to important financial or personal files and illegal downloads of music or videos. In each of these situations the church could be held accountable for what has happened on its network, according to Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company, a company that insures churches and related ministries.
Though no system is foolproof, churches can provide Wi-Fi and protect themselves at the same time. Brotherhood Mutual advises churches to take key steps before allowing public Wi-Fi, including:
- Creating a separate network for administration. Administrative computers often contain confidential information, like bank account numbers or information from counseling sessions. When a church doesn’t protect its wireless network someone using the same Wi-Fi connection could get their hands on church members’ personal and financial information. Having a private network or subnetwork for administration makes it more difficult for unauthorized people to access important files.
- Encrypting sensitive files. Encrypting files makes accessing them nearly impossible for nonchurch employees. For the most secure encryption, consider installing encryption software on all church computers.
- Installing both hardware and software firewalls. Having two types of firewalls decreases the chance of a computer virus slipping through and damaging church computers.
- Updating the operating systems. Keeping software up-to-date removes bugs from the system and helps computers run more smoothly.
Passwords can limit access to a network as well, though there is no easy way to keep people outside the church from getting the password. Some churches provide the password to those who ask and others print the password in the weekly bulletin.
That’s how Brian Harris set up the Wi-Fi at Taylor Road Baptist Church, Montgomery, while serving as the church’s communications director several years ago.
“Our thought was that we could hopefully trust our people not to be looking at things they shouldn’t and that placing a password on the system would prevent people from driving up in our parking lot and using the Wi-Fi,” said Harris, former web and social media strategist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
Recently installed Wi-Fi networks at Alabama Baptist campus centers throughout the state also rely on password protection, according to Doug Rogers, director of SBOM’s office of communications and technology services.
Brotherhood Mutual suggests churches can make their Wi-Fi more secure by changing the password weekly and announcing the new password each Sunday morning, perhaps even correlating the new password with the sermon topic.
A content filter is another measure that can help prevent illegal Internet use.
Finally churches can protect themselves from illegal Internet usage by requiring all online visitors to agree to an Internet usage policy before accessing the Internet at church.
Simms Showers suggests key terms in the policy could include:
- Prohibiting activities such as online bullying and harassment, accessing obscene or offensive content, online gambling and illegally downloading copyrighted content.
- Requiring an age minimum and parental supervision of minors.
- Requiring visitors to use updated anti-virus software.
- Advising visitors to avoid sharing personal and sensitive information such as credit card numbers over the network.
- A “hold-harmless” clause that notifies the visitor that the church is not responsible for damage to the user’s electronic devices or software, or the loss or theft of personal information. Despite the risks the benefits of a carefully managed Wi-Fi system can be great, according to Brotherhood Mutual.
Energizing ministries
“With preventative measures put in place, the growing trend of offering free Wi-Fi at church can continue to energize ministries. There’s no limit to the number of ways churches can use wireless Internet and handheld devices to spread the gospel message through their city, their country and the world.”
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