Stop Helping Hackers

December 20, 2017
by Rodney Olsen
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Christmas is just days away and no doubt there’ll be many people receiving gifts of technology which will require passwords. So how do you ensure that those shiny new devices don’t make you a target for hackers?

Internet security firm SplashData has released their annual guide to helping, or hindering, hackers. They’ve been taking a look at the worst passwords used online in 2017 and have come up with their list of the top 100 worst passwords. The thing that makes them the worst is that they’re the most common, meaning that those with less than honourable intention will be using them to try to break your security.

If you see your password among the top twenty-five below, your data is in serious danger. It’s time to change your passwords or get ready to get hacked.

  1. 123456
  2. Password
  3. 12345678
  4. qwerty
  5. 12345
  6. 123456789
  7. letmein
  8. 1234567
  9. football
  10. iloveyou
  11. admin
  12. welcome
  13. monkey
  14. login
  15. abc123
  16. starwars
  17. 123123
  18. dragon
  19. passw0rd
  20. maste
  21. hello
  22. freedom
  23. whatever
  24. qazwsx
  25. trustno1

As in previous lists, simple numerical passwords remain popular, with five of the top 10 passwords on the 2017 list using only numbers. Then there are all the usual favourites such as ‘password’, ‘starwars’ and for those trying to be a little tricky, but failing, ‘passw0rd’.

If you want to create stronger and less hacker-friendly passwords you should be using at least 12 characters with a combination of upper and lowercase letters and characters. You should also ensure that you use different passwords for different websites.

If you’re looking for a better solution you might like to try a password manager application.

I’ve been using LastPass for many years. It’s a password manager which makes web browsing more secure. It will keep all your passwords secure and help you generate strong passwords.

Nothing can really guarantee you won’t get hacked, especially if one of the services you use is hacked, exposing even the best passwords, but it’s worth putting a bit of effort into keeping your data secure.



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Choose your Jesus

December 20, 2017
by Rodney Olsen
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I read an interesting article this morning titled, “Most Australians like seeing baby Jesus in a manger at the mall”.

New McCrindle research shows that 9 out of 10 Australians feel that nativity scenes are part of Christmas and should be in our public spaces.

Even among Australians who practise a religion other than Christianity, 91 per cent are happy to see nativities, while 86 per cent of those who have no religious beliefs are also supportive, according to McCrindle.

While I’m encouraged to know that most Aussies still see the connection between baby Jesus and Christmas as important, we still seem a long way from allowing a place for the grown-up version of Jesus in public.

We seem to like the Jesus of Christmas.

I wonder if that’s because a baby is cute and inoffensive. Baby Jesus doesn’t throw the money changers out of the temple. Baby Jesus doesn’t call us to leave behind what the rest of the world is chasing to follow him. Baby Jesus doesn’t hang brutally beaten and bleeding from a cross in our place.

Despite protests from his wife and father-in-law, Will Ferrell’s character in the 2006 movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby prefers baby Jesus to adult Jesus. In the scene in the video below, everyone gets to choose their ‘favourite version of Jesus’.

Choose your Jesus

It’s a funny scene but there’s a lot of truth behind it. Many people seem to think they can choose their own Jesus. I hear people saying what they believe Jesus would and wouldn’t think about a range of issues without actually going to the source of information that truly reveals who Jesus was and is … the Bible.

I’ll certainly be celebrating the baby Jesus this Christmas but I refuse to leave him in a manger. The miracle of ‘God with us’ is truly awesome but the fact that God dwelt among us by taking on flesh must lead us to thinking of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

Focussing on more than just the baby Jesus at this time of year makes the Christmas story even more wonderful and has consequences for each of us that stretch into eternity. That baby grew into a man who would change history. He changed history because he was not only a man but the God who defined history in the first place.

If you’re one of the majority of people who enjoy seeing the nativity at this time each year, let me encourage you to marvel at the manger but then look beyond to see Jesus for who he became and who he is.



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