Posts by Jonathan Smith
Don’t Go it Alone
Can I ask you a question? Do you want your IT staff to go it alone? Do you want them learning from others or solving all problems in a vacuum? By default, many IT folks prefer to go it alone, but that may not always be best, especially in ministry.
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Read MoreReasonable & Essential BYOD Policies
BYOD– Bring Your Own Device– is an IT wave that is sweeping corporations. IT Directors are understandably uncomfortable about this. Adopting enforceable policies will make the difference, however, in BYOD’s success in any organization.
Read MoreLargest IT Outage in History
I wanted to provide an update to today’s widely reported internet outages. I hope the first thing we do when outages like this happen is to trust in the Lord. Our Savior is far more powerful than any of our technology and inconveniences like today’s outages are all part of His sovereign plan.
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Read MoreChurch IT – third edition released!
At MBS, advancing the Kingdom includes providing access to church IT and ministry technology resources that everyone can utilize. Regardless of whether you’re a client of MBS, these resources are available to you.
Numerous complimentary resources can be found here on our website at https://mbsinc.com/articles.
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Read MoreAI Policy for Churches and Ministries
Artificial Intelligence is everywhere, and like it or not, everyone is using it. That means those inside and outside of your ministry are probably already using AI. Whether that is good or bad is ultimately a leadership decision every ministry is going to have to make. While the legal system is struggling to keep up,
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Read MorePlease Protect Your Macs
I know, I know, this can be a controversial topic, but hey, it’s an election year.
Apple fans aside, it is important to objectively look at the security of all devices on your network and with access to your ministry data. Whether BYOD or ministry issued,
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Read MoreYes, Ministries Should Embrace AI
There is no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) has been a significant technological advancement and will continue to revolutionize our lives, with some suggesting AI is to this generation what dial-up internet was to the prior generation.
But with artificial intelligence comes many questions.
Is it safe?
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Read MoreChurch Cybersecurity Starts With the Human Firewall
Every week I’m asked about cybersecurity. Unfortunately, it is usually after an incident has occurred. I’m asked about insurance, incident triage, costs to recover, and more. My favorite calls are from those churches that want to get out ahead of cybersecurity and not just be prepared if an incident occurs but want to be prepared to avoid the incidents.
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Read MoreMicrosoft Resolves O365 Charity Licensing Issue for Churches!
Many Christian churches and ministries have been uncomfortable with the Microsoft charity licensing section requiring them to certify they don’t discriminate in their employment practices regarding LGBT issues. On 10/8/2015 Microsoft resolved this and posted the changes to their website! That is great news for many! Here are the details.
Read MorePassword Management and LastPass
I’ve been asked a lot of questions about password managers, especially due to the LastPass hack that started in 2022 and was fully disclosed in 2023. Before getting too far into this, let me be clear that I’m still pro password manager. Password managers, while not spelled out in the original Greek,
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