HACKED

"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." (2 Timothy 3:13)

Many of us have watched Matthew Broderick in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" more than once. Ferris is kind of like the guy in the Biblical Parable of the Unjust Steward when he hacks into the school computer and changes his absence record from 9 times to 2. Yes, it's funny in that setting, but when your own personal e-mail account gets hacked, it's not all that funny. My own AOL account was hacked into just a few days ago. Somebody sent out links to a site promoting Viagara to to everyone on my contact list. There are probably over three hundred on my complete contact list. I heard that while most folks on my contact list received one of these promos for Viagara, a few received three or more of the spam e-mails.

I learned of this while I was driving home on the MassPike a few evenings ago. A friend called me and said he'd just received a spam e-mail from my account. I told him I couldn't have sent it because I hadn't been on-line for over two hours and that someone had obviously hacked into my account. At first, I thought maybe someone had just sent out a FEW of these things. Not so. Next morning when I signed on AOL at the Framingham Public Library, there were a number of "undeliverable" e-mails which had gone to people whose accounts no longer exist. There were also a number of e-mails from confused friends wondering why they received a spam link from "me". In fact, whoever hacked my account was only a semi-professional. I'll tell you why. The really sophisticated hackers and spammers hack into one person's account to use their screen name to SEND spam e-mails; then they send them to all the contacts of someone else's account that they've hacked into. In THIS way, the victim likely doesn't even know his or her account was hacked into. I WILL say, sometimes I have received a spam e-mail from my own e-mail address. When that happens, it means someone likely hacked into my account then sent a bunch of spam to someone ELSE'S contacts. In THIS case, the person sent them to MY contacts, so it was pretty obvious what happened.

Literally anybody's account can be hacked into and used to send spam, but some accounts are much more likely to be hacked into than others. If you have not changed your password for awhile, you are more likely to be hacked. (I hadn't.) If you go to a lot of websites, your screen name is "out there" in cyberspace and more likely to be hacked. This is true even if you do a Google search or Yahoo search. If you forward a lot of mass e-mails, you are also more likely to be hacked, and as you know, I do. However, people who DON'T do internet searches, don't go on websites, change their passwords, etc. still get hacked. It's not foolproof.

I had an interesting time changing my password. I've had AOL since 1996. In the past when I wanted to change my password, I just went into the AOL software on our home iMac computer and just changed it. It was easy. Now, I go on AOL through their website. When I tried to change my password through the website I had a hard time. I had to answer a security question which I passed. I then had to enter my first and last name. (You DON'T have to do that on actual AOL software; only on the website.) I entered Robert Baril and Bob Baril and Rev. Bob Baril and Rev. Robert Baril and other combinations. NOTHING worked. It kept saying I was NOT the account holder and that was NOT my name. Finally, it said that I had one more try and then my account would be suspended! I went to my daughter's apartment in Framingham and went on what USED to be our old home iMac computer. I then went on the AOL software and changed my password. BUT, when I then went on the AOL website, it STILL wanted my first and last name even with my new screen name AND IT SUSPENDED MY ACCOUNT! It's a good thing I did not have a heart attack!

I got the number of AOL customer service, and was put on hold for fifteen minutes. Finally, I got a young woman in India...well, where else?! I explained my whole problem. She told me what my actual first and last name are on the account. I learned there is a certain WAY you have to enter your names or it won't work. I had to pick still ANOTHER new password. In fact, I have two AOL accounts, my own and the one that used to be First Assembly of God of Framingham's. I changed the passwords on both. It felt good to then go on the web and find out the AOL worked fine again. I know now I will have to frequently change my passwords. I also learned that if you receive an e-mail from someone you know, but it shows NO SUBJECT and when you open it ALL it contains is a URL address link and nothing else, it's spam and DON"T open it.

One friend asked, "why do these things happen to good people?!" and another answered "sin!" Yup, it's due to sinful man (and woman!). You can't avoid this stuff. I know some people will say, "I'll NEVER forward an e-mail again!" or "I'll NEVER go on a website again!" Can I say (bluntly) that's stupid!? If someone stole and trashed your automobile, would you stop driving?! Of course not!

The internet is a wonderful tool. The revolution in Egypt this year has been credited to one person who began posting on Facebook. Honestly, there's a lot of junk and drivel sent out as mass e-mailings and I've sent a lot of dumb stuff, myself, BUT every once in awhile there's that rare e-mail piece that's powerfully anointed of the Lord and can be used to powerfully minister to thousands and even millions and CHANGE LIVES. So, don't be so quick to NOT use the internet as a powerful tool for the Lord.

And, since Jesus said to pray for those who do harm to you and persecute you: "Lord, please bring that hacker to his or her knees, and please bring that person to true salvation." Amen.