October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. This month, Long Beach City College Information Technology Services is focusing on five small habits that make our campus—and our lives outside work—safer. 

Week 1 Habit: Pause. Inspect. Verify. 

Cyber scams do not arrive only through email. They may reach you in several ways: 

• Phishing is a fraudulent email or online message designed to make you click a link, open an attachment, or share sensitive information.  
• Smishing is phishing delivered through a text message.  
• Vishing is phishing conducted through a phone call or voicemail.  

The method may be different, but the goal is usually the same: to pressure you into acting before you have time to think. 

A scam might appear to be: 

• A shared document or voicemail notification.  
• A payroll, benefits, or account problem.  
• An urgent request from a student, colleague, or LBCC executive.  
• A text asking you to buy gift cards or send payment information.  
• A call asking for your password, verification code, or other personal information.  

Pause

Ask yourself:

• Was I expecting this message or call?  
• Is the person creating urgency or asking me to keep the request secret?  
• Am I being asked for money, gift cards, a password, or a verification code?  

Urgency is often intended to keep you from stopping to verify the request. 

Inspect

Check the following:

• the full email address
• phone number provided is legitimate
• link destination
• wording of the message

A familiar name, college logo, caller ID, or professional-looking message does not prove that the communication is legitimate. 

Verify

Contact the person or organization through a method you already trust, such as: 

• The LBCC phone directory.  
• A saved phone number.  
• An official website or mobile app.  
• A previously established email address.  

Do not use the phone number, link, or contact information contained in the suspicious message. 

This is a reminder that we must continuously make informed decisions when dealing with email, text messages, and phone calls. On that note, when you have a moment, please review the information on how to recognize phishing email messages.

ITS would be remiss if it did not remind you to make sure to keep your network/e-mail password to yourself. LBCC policy 6006 specifically prohibits the sharing of account information. No one, not even ITS, should ask for it. If anyone asks for your password, please report it to  ITS Help Desk so ITS can reiterate this policy.