Last month, Adam had so many good ideas for making sure you keep your computer and your information safe, that we had to divide it into two chunks!

Taking technology on your side…

19. It’s a matter of trust: An important question is, can you trust the site’s certificate to be authentic?  VeriSign was guilty of issuing security certificates to sites that claimed to be part of Microsoft not so long ago.  The latest versions of browsers, Internet Explorer 7 and Opera 9 will soon be able to provide users with Extended Validation SSL certificates that assure them of being on a genuine site.  The address bar shows green for the good guys and red for the doubtful ones.

20. From phishers with greed: Emails can also be spoofed. The only way you can be sure they are not, is to use clients that support S/MIME digital signatures.   First check if the sender’s address is correct, and then look for the digital signature.  This is a pretty effective anti-phishing tactic as the signature is generated by the client after the mail has been opened and authenticated, and because it’s based on robust cryptographic techniques.

21. Keep up or else: Make sure your operating system and browsers are UPDATED regularly.  Check for the latest patches and apply them immediately.

22. Build that fence: PROTECT your computer with effective anti-virus and anti-spam software, and set up firewalls to keep those sneaky Trojan horses out.  They are capable of the worst kind of phishing – installing surreptitious key-logging software on your system that captures all your keystrokes and transports them to the crooks in some unknown location.  What’s worse is that the infection spreads from your PC to other systems on your network, till all the computers are compromised.

23. Not just a token: Consider using an ID Vault USB TOKEN that encrypts all your user ids and passwords and stores them on a flash drive, which can then be used to securely log onto websites.  Most tokens come with a list of legitimate sites and also prevent key-logging software from working effectively.  The device itself is password-protected, so thieves have an added layer of encryption to tackle.

24. Hashing to confuse: Software plug-ins are joining in the fight against phishing, an example being the PwdHash, or password HASH tool developed by two Stanford professors that scrambles any password you type, and creates a unique sign-on for each site you visit.  Even if phishers are given a password, it’s the wrong one.

25. I spy no spies: Another application developed along the lines of PwdHash, and also created by the same two Stanford professors, the SPYBLOCK tool prevents Trojan horse key-logging programs from stealing your passwords.

26. Extending protection: Browser extensions like Antiphish (used as a plug-in by Mozilla’s Firefox) offer protection against phishing attacks by maintaining LISTS of passwords and other sensitive information, and issuing warnings when users type this information on fishy sites.

Prospective protection against phishing…

27. Sending positive signals: New technologies like the Sender ID Framework (SIDF) are joining in the fight against spoofing websites by verifying the source of each email.  In the pipeline from Microsoft and CipherTrust.

28. Not barring trust: TrustBars, which are secure and tamper-proof components of browsers, allow VISUALIZATION of information related to sites.  Users are alerted by visible warnings when there is a discrepancy in the visualization on the bar.

29. Slow down those attacks: Another technique, the Delayed Password Disclosure (DPD), protests against pop-up windows that ask for sensitive details (aptly termed doppelganger window attacks).  It works against phishing attacks when users enter passwords letter by letter, one following the other only after a corresponding image is recognized.

30. Proof positive: Websites that wish to prove they are authentic can use HTML extensions called PROOFLETS to enhance a server’s contents.  These are verified by browsers through the use of special web services.

Alternative approaches…

31. Mobility in scams: As consumers are wising up to their scams, phishers are moving on to newer media to launch their scams. Mobile phones, a necessity in today’s world, are the latest targets.  Text messages purporting to originate from your bank warn you that unless you confirm your account information, it will be deactivated.  IGNORE these messages, they are always spam.

32. Voicing doubts: Another hot sphere of activity, the VoIP technology, is being harnessed as a phishing tool with alarming regularity.  The crooks find it COST-EFFECTIVE to make numerous calls and earn a sum well above the incurred expenses.  This is doubly dangerous because people who would look at an email with suspicion, generally tend to believe phone calls.

Make a difference…

33. Join the fight: If you come across a phishing scam, REPORT it at once to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the FBI through the Internet Fraud Complaint Center, both of whom work to shut down phishing sites and catch those responsible.

34. Say goodbye: If any of your accounts have been compromised, CLOSE them at once.

35. Change is good: If you even suspect that your any one of your passwords has gone to the wrong hands, CHANGE all your passwords and pin numbers on online accounts immediately.

Adam Brown, Technical Advisor

At this time of year, it’s common for many of us to think about a newborn baby lying in a manger.  It’s a sanitised, sentimental scene where we’ve airbrushed out the smell of cattle dung and the sounds of a teenage girl giving birth in squalor.  We think humanitarian thoughts about peace and goodwill to everyone.  It’s a vaguely aspirational time when we try to be kind and be slightly generous to those who have less than us, generous enough at least to salve our consciences about how much high-calorie food we will throw away and how much alcohol we will consume.

What we often overlook is that this little child who is the focus of our nativity scenes is the ultimate cross-cultural mission worker.

He gave up a wealthy, safe and comfortable existence to live a life of poverty, hardship and danger in order to tell people that God loves them.  Many didn’t listen, or were only interested in the food handouts or his medical ministry.  Some of those who followed his teaching clearly misunderstood it, or cracked under pressure of persecution.  One even betrayed him to the authorities.  In the end he paid the ultimate price for his mission.

Today, many millions of people claim to be his followers.  Many of them live their lives like he did, boldly taking his message of good news to those who haven’t heard it, or don’t want to hear it, and they count it a privilege to pay the price for it.  We salute you, and pray that you will be encouraged in your ministries this Christmas.

Sadly, many of his followers are too much like the thousands who liked his catchy stories, and loved being entertained or fed or healed by him, but were all too obviously absent when the time came to stand up and be counted.  We wish these people not peace and joy but challenge and conviction.  We re-tweet his call to costly discipleship – take up your cross and follow me. The path to genuine peace and joy is not a safe and comfortable one.  The road from Bethlehem to Heaven runs through Calvary.

This week’s guest blogger is Rev Dr Martin Robinson, Principal of Springdale College: Together in Mission.  This article first appeared on www.eurochurch.net in September 2010.

Tom Wright, the recently-retired Bishop of Durham and leading New Testament scholar, marked his retirement bygiving a significant interview to the BBC in which he reflected on the situation of the Church of England.  During that wide ranging interview he picked on the theme that we are not becoming more secular, in fact if anything we are becoming more religious.

What he described applies to Europe more widely.  In a world of ‘posts’ – post-empire, post-modern, and post-Christian – we can now add post-secular.  A number of European commentators have picked up on this theme.  Europe is increasingly post-secular.

How do we make sense of such a situation?  How can we have lost touch with the founding roots of Europe and become post-Christian and yet now be rejecting the root of that criticism, secularism itself?

The clue lies in the contrast between being ‘religious people’ and ‘spiritual people’.  The people of Europe don’t think of themselves as ‘religious’, by which they mean to identify with a particular religious organization or institution but they can think of themselves as ‘spiritual’ by which they mean interested in God, in prayer, in a sense of wonder and mystery about life.

No more empty church buildings?

The root of this rejection of religion lies partly in the ancient European worry about religion as embodying conflict combined with a more recent rejection of institutions of all kinds  - whether they be political, social, or even educational.  We are now radically individualistic with all the angst that such a choice produces.  More worryingly there is also a gradual severing of the relationship between the idea of spirituality and the idea of morality.  You can be a ‘spiritual’ person without having to think too deeply about a particular moral code beyond the requirement to do no harm.

The depth of this shift of sentiment helps to illustrate the painful lesson that the church has learnt these last 20 years: the answer to the question of the decline of the church does not lie in a particular programme or model of the church.   Instead we have to learn how to do mission – in our cultural context – deeply contextualized and profoundly local.

In a recent interview with a church leader in Wales, I learnt that most of the historic churches in Wales are still declining but that a few  congregations in their midst were seeing good growth.  One or two of the smaller historic denominations are beginning to turn the corner and that some of the newer and independent churches are seeing remarkable growth.  The single factor that connects these very different expressions of church is the willingness to connect with and to serve at a deep level the communities in which they are located.

One of my students who is exploring the growth of some ‘traditional’ congregations in Scotland is making the same kind of discoveries in that very different context.  The exploration of this kind of mission is precisely what Eurochurch.net as a network of practitioners and thinkers is committed to locate and debate.

Martin Robinson

In the last couple of weeks I’ve been part of two seminars on risk.  One considered the need for charities to comply with legislation protecting children and vulnerable adults, observe employment legislation, and take out insurance against risks that can’t be entirely managed away.  The other concerned how much risk our organisations are prepared to take when sending people abroad, particularly into potentially hazardous situations.  How much does the litigious culture we live in force us to avoid some legitimate risk, refrain from sending teams to unstable places where they can make a huge difference,  and pull our staff out of dangerous situations at the very time the local people need us most?  Apparently some of the first people on the flights out of Haiti after the earthquake were mission workers.  How tragic.

Evaluating risk is something we all do on a regular basis.  We’re so accustomed to it that we don’t even think of it as such, but each time we cross the road we evaluate the risk of not walking fast enough to get all the way across before that bus hits us.  When we choose a school for our children, we’re evaluating the risk of damage to their education or personality if we get it wrong.  When we take out a pension plan our advisers ask us what our risk profile is, so that they know how to invest our funds. Most of the time, we plan for safe options.  We talk about job security, or financial independence, but what we mean is ‘safe’.  Perhaps there’s not enough risk in our lives.  One of the reasons that apparently dangerous activities like bungee jumping, tombstoning or riding on roller coasters are so popular may be because people don’t get enough adrenalin in their lives without artificially seeking it out.

Perhaps we should actually be looking to live more adventurously.  We were asked at one of the seminars ‘Does God take risks?’  The answers varied, but it was clear that over the millennia his people have done.  From Abraham setting out from the security of Ur for an as-yet-indeterminate country which he would never call home, via Paul regularly suffering beatings, stonings and shipwrecks when he could have had a pleasant life as a Jewish rabbi, to the many missionary saints and martyrs of more recent centuries, God’s people have not been known for being risk-averse.  As Hudson Taylor observed, If there is no element of risk in our endeavours for God, there is no need for faith.

When I was first planning to go and serve God in a particularly undeveloped, post-conflict country in Africa, my best friend asked me what I thought the risks were.  Before I answered him, I thought about the potential damage to my career prospects and my finances.  I wondered about the impact on my hopes to have a family.  I considered the possibility of serious health problems – or even death  – due to landmines, gunfire, malaria or car accident.  In the end I concluded that there was no risk at all… because a risk only exists where what you stand to lose is of value to you.  As that missionary martyr Jim Eliot wrote: He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.

Karen Bible College students in worship

First of all, it’s not a typo!  The name really is Chrestos.  It’s the Greek word for ‘kind’.  Founders Geoffrey & Pat Atkinson decided that they wanted to be kind to the people they work with.  They certainly need some kindness.  Based in northwest Thailand, not too far from the tourist capital of Chiang Mai, Chrestos Mission works with Karen people, a marginalised minority group who have suffered much, particularly at the hands of the Burmese military.  Many of them have fled from Burma across the Salween River into Thailand, where they are billeted in overcrowded refugee camps while they continue the interminable wait for asylum in western countries.  Without Thai ID cards, they can’t leave the camps for fear of being repatriated.

After a lifetime of work in missions in south east Asia, you would think that Geoffrey & Pat would want to retire.  But in 2002, already well into their 60s, God called them to start this work up from scratch.  It is a testament to their prayerfulness and drive that in such a short time they have managed to achieve so much.

Chrestos works extensively in these camps, supporting churches, orphanages and even bible colleges by providing food, clothing and medicine.  Through this support lives are saved, children are cared for and educated, and people meet Jesus.  Many of them go on to graduate from bible colleges and perpetuate a victorious cycle of taking the gospel to their own people.

Through the work of a number of mission agencies as well as the efforts of the indigenous church, the Karen church is the fastest growing in Thailand.  At its base in Mae Sariang, Chrestos runs its own bible college with some 75 students, training Karen believers to go back to their people with the gospel.  Chrestos also has a high quality recording studio which produces teaching, worship, drama and Sunday School lessons on dvd so that the Karen church is even better equipped to spread the gospel.  In the same town Chrestos also operates and orphanage called the Home of Peace & Joy.

When I visited Chrestos in 2008, one of their Karen leaders walked with me across the ‘Friendship Bridge’ into Burma at Mae Sot.  It was the first time he had been back to the country of his birth since he fled to Thailand as a child.  His father was subsequently killed by the Burmese army.  I find it very hard to forgive them, he told me.

• Please pray for change in Burma so that the Karen can return to their villages and live in safety.  Praise God that there is ample opportunity for them to hear the gospel in the refugee camps.  Pray that they will respond to it, and take it home with them when they are finally repatriated.
• Pray for the Atkinsons, that they will continue to have health and energy, and for God to raise up indigenous successors for them to run the Chrestos community.
• Pray that the Karen will be able to forgive those who have made them suffer, and that this will be a testimony to the grace of God which will lead many to Jesus.

You can read more about Chrestos at http://www.chrestos-mission.org/