It seems like every day there’s a news story about data leakage, phishing attempts, and online security. It can be hard to decipher what your responsibility is as a church to protect your members’ data, and what steps you can take to ensure your members’ information is safeguarded.
We’ve created a comprehensive guide to help you protect sensitive information yet still maintain your confidence in ministry!
Permissions
One of the easiest ways to enhance your church data security is to restrict who has access to specific information. You might be tempted to make every staff member an administrator or give everyone full access to data in your church management software, but this is a security nightmare!
Instead, give staff and volunteers access to only the information that directly impacts their duties. Your music director doesn’t need access to all the members’ phone numbers, but your administrative assistant will definitely need access to that information. Your accountant or financial secretary should have access to giving information, but your communications director should not.
This way, if there is some sort of a security concern, you can know exactly who has access to what information, which will help you get to the bottom of the issue.
Pastor Confidentiality
Your pastor should be concerned about safeguarding member information—and he likely already is! Pastors have always maintained confidentiality with members, but in the digital age, that confidentiality is especially important.
During visits or meetings, pastors often take notes to be able to pray for members, to update situations, and to serve as reminders for future meetings. However, these notes should remain extremely confidential.
If your pastor is logging these visitation notes in your church management software, you should ensure that only the pastor has access to those notes. No one else needs access. If your pastor is using the notes app on his phone, consider asking him to set up a special password or facial recognition for that app specifically. This extra layer of security can give members peace of mind during vulnerable times.
Cloud Security Basics
When it comes to cloud security, the responsibility is split between two parties: you and your cloud provider. Your provider maintains the responsibility to have systems and securities in place to protect your data with their infrastructure. You, as the user, have the responsibility to protect who accesses the data and how it is distributed and used.
A common phrase in cloud security is “Never Trust; Always Verify,” which essentially means that you should never immediately assume that an email or file is trustworthy. Phishing attempts have gotten extremely convincing; your volunteers or staff might receive emails that seem to be from your pastor, asking for sensitive member information. Remind your team that if something seems suspicious to them, they should always go straight to the source and ask the individual requesting the information. They can stop by the person’s office or call the person to verify the request.
Encryption
Encryption might sound intimidating, like it’s from a movie about computer hackers, but it’s really incredibly easy—once you have the right church management software.
Your church management system should feature an SSL or TLS encryption; this is essentially a layer of protection on the website where your software is hosted that protects sensitive information like passwords and credit card numbers.
If you’re not sure if your church management software is encrypted, check the URL. A good rule of thumb is that if it has https:// before the website name, it’s encrypted—but it’s always good to check with your contact at the website host to verify what security measures they have in place.
Staff Training
Your entire church staff—whether paid or volunteer—need to be trained on how to safeguard member information. People don’t know what they don’t know, and giving them proper processes and information can save you from big headaches later on.
Your church management software might offer video trainings to educate your staff on the proper means of church data security. Or you can find some generic videos on YouTube to more generally teach data security at work. You might even be able to find someone locally who can come in and lead an in-person session for your team!
Volunteer Misuse Prevention
Churches rely on faithful volunteers to help carry out the mission, and that includes giving relevant volunteers access to information in your church database. However, just like you would with employees, it’s important to prevent misuse of this data.
As stated earlier, offering staff training and restricting sensitive information can go a long way in preventing volunteer misuse of information. When a volunteer steps into a new role, make it clear what the expectations are for church data security—especially if the role deals with sensitive information.
It might seem over the top, but consider having volunteers sign a covenant that outlines not only what their duties are but also what the expectations are surrounding church data security. This covenant will hold them accountable and remind them of the importance their job holds in safeguarding member information!
Data Security as Stewardship
As Christians, we know that we are called by God to be good stewards of what He has given us. And while we mostly think of stewardship in terms of money or time, we should also be good stewards of everything God has entrusted to us—including sensitive member information.
When we do our best to protect what belongs to others, including their data in our church management system, we are honoring God by being good stewards. Of course, this stewardship has no bearing on our salvation—that’s by faith alone!—but we should still seek to honor God and be mindful of what He has entrusted to us.
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