Because digital stewardship requires a complete defense. In our mission to support theological education to spread the gospel and serve our members, we handle sensitive data that belongs to the people God has entrusted to our care.

Think of these tools as a security perimeter:

• Single Sign-On (SSO) ensures that only you can access your identity.

• Proton VPN ensures that no one can "listen in" on your work while you are on the road or in a cafe.

• Proton Pass ensures that even if one service is compromised, your other accounts remain locked behind a vault.

By using all three, we aren't just following IT rules; we are building a "fortified city" around our ministry’s data, ensuring that our focus remains on our mission rather than recovering from a preventable breach.

Yes—you are the most important part of our defense. Tools like VPNs and SSO are powerful, but they are only as effective as the person using them. In a digital environment, a single compromised staff account can be used as a "door" to reach our members' data or disrupt our systems.

Vigilance is an act of service to the team. When you take the extra two seconds to turn on your VPN or use a unique password from your vault, you are protecting:

1. Our Members: Keeping their private information private.

2. Our Ministry: Protecting our reputation and our ability to operate without interruption.

3. The Mission: Ensuring that the resources we have are spent on the gospel, not on disaster recovery.

Staying alert to suspicious emails and using these tools correctly isn't just a technical requirement—it is how we guard the integrity of the work we have been called to do.

If you need access to Horizon's Office network remotely, use Proton.

AND 

Always, if it’s Public, Use Proton. 

Whenever you are connecting to the internet on a network you don’t personally own or trust, your VPN should be ON.

• Coffee Shops & Cafes: Public Wi-Fi is notorious for "man-in-the-middle" attacks where hackers can intercept your data.

• Airports & Hotels: These networks are massive targets for data theft.

• Conferences & Events: High-density public networks are rarely secure.

Not at all. It’s an app on your computer or phone. You open it, click "Quick Connect," and you're done. It’s essentially a "digital shield" for your internet connection.

Yes! Using a professional manager like Proton Pass Pro is the #1 thing you can do to protect Horizon (and yourself) from cyber threats. Since it’s the "Pro" version, it also handles two-factor authentication (2FA) codes for you, so you don't have to fumble with your phone.

To import Horizon passwords from another password manager (i.e. Bitwarden, LastPass, etc.) follow the instructions for migrating to Proton from your current provider.

We chose Proton because they are world leaders in "Zero-Knowledge" encryption. It adds an extra layer of safety: Google handles your Identity, and Proton handles your Vault.

Exactly. Instead of having separate passwords for the CMS, Jira, and our Student Information System (SIS), you will only need to remember your one Horizon Google password. When you see a "Sign in with Google" button on any of our authorized services, just click it. Your identity is automatically verified, and you’re in. 

If you are accessing another third-party service where we can't setup Single-Sign-On, you can store the credential in Proton Pass and it can be optionally set to auto-fill that credential whenever you visit that site again.

Your password updates everywhere simultaneously. You won’t have to go into five different apps to reset your credentials. One change in Google protects your entire "Horizon Identity," including your Proton vault and our internal platforms.

In most cases, yes! Once you’ve signed into your Chrome browser with your @horizonednet.org account, other services like Jira or the LMS will recognize you automatically. You’ll often find yourself skipping the "login screen" entirely, moving seamlessly between your tools without being asked for a password every time.