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Help Desk Hours and Location
Contact the ITS Help Desk at 1(805)922-6966 extension 3345 or at helpdesk@hancockcollege.edu
The ITS Help Desk is located in the library on the Santa Maria campus, next to the checkout counter.
Scheduled In-Person Support Hours:
Monday – Thursday: 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Outside scheduled hours or Friday: Available by appointment
If emergency assistance is needed, please call the ITS Support Extension at 3345.
Essential Articles and Ticket Requests
Updates from Technology Council and Committees
- Web Services Committee
- Schedule: Meetings are held bi-monthly, usually on the 1st Thursday, from 9:30-11:00 am.
- Update: Addressed missing work order links from portal menu. Investigating loading speeds and catalog improvements. Catalog archive page pending creation. Work in progress on link from the Starfish widget to SuccessNet.
- Educational Technology Advisory Committee (EdTAC)
- Schedule: Meetings are held bi-monthly, usually on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday, from 2:30-4:00 pm.
- Update: Meeting scheduled for 3/24/26. Significant updates in progress for Building M to move toward technology standard.
- Banner Committee
- Schedule: Meetings are held monthly, usually on the 2nd Monday, from 9:00 - 10:30 am.
- No Update
- Technology Council
- Schedule: Meetings are held bi-monthly, usually on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday, from 2:30-4:00 pm.
- Update: Microsoft 365 Student Tenant Transition (May 2026)
(ITS is proactively communicating this change to reduce support impact and ensure students preserve critical data prior to migration.)
Posters will be put up around campus in an additional effort to notify students.
Upcoming Student Microsoft Tenant Merge
AHC will be transitioning student Microsoft accounts (email, OneDrive, and Office apps) to a new Microsoft 365 environment during the week following commencement in May. While student usernames, email addresses, passwords, and MFA settings will remain the same, mailboxes and OneDrive storage will be recreated in the new system.
Because of this change, students must extract and save any content they wish to keep prior to the cutover.
Communication to Students (Approved Messaging)
Hancock Students,
We want to let you know about an important change coming to your Allan Hancock College student Microsoft account (email, OneDrive, and Office apps). During the week after commencement, AHC will be transitioning student accounts to a new Microsoft 365 environment. Your username, email address, password, and MFA will remain the same, but your mailbox and OneDrive will be recreated in the new system.
What You Need to Do Before May 22
Anything you want to keep — emails, files, attachments, or documents stored in OneDrive — must be saved to a personal storage location before May 22.
Examples include a personal OneDrive, Google Drive, or an external USB drive. After the transition is complete, you can upload your files back into your new OneDrive if you choose.
What Happens During the Cutover
Microsoft applications such as Outlook, Office apps, and OneDrive will be unavailable for a period during the transition.
Other systems like Canvas, the myHancock portal, and student web services will NOT be affected and will operate normally.
After the transition, you will receive a new, empty mailbox and an empty OneDrive folder.
More Information Coming Soon
We will send another message in late April confirming the exact date and time of the transition, along with final reminders.
For more information visit:
https://hancockcollege.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/2283/Portal/KB/ArticleDet?ID=170340
Thank you for taking steps now to protect your important files and messages.
When You Can’t Trust What You Hear or Read: The New Age of AI Scams
It used to be simple.
You could spot a scam email by bad grammar.
You could trust a familiar voice on the phone.
You could assume that if something looked real, it probably was.
That world is gone.
AI Has Changed the Rules
Cybercriminals are no longer just sending sloppy phishing emails—they’re using artificial intelligence to craft messages that sound exactly like a real person.
In fact, AI-generated phishing is now the norm, not the exception. One recent report found that 83% of phishing emails now use AI, and these messages are far more convincing—achieving click rates more than 4x higher than traditional scams.
Even more concerning?
Most people cannot reliably tell the difference between a real message and an AI-generated one.
🎙️ Now Add Your Voice to the Attack
It doesn’t stop at email.
Today’s scams don’t just look real—they sound real too.
AI can now clone a person’s voice using just a few seconds of audio, creating calls that sound like your boss, your coworker, or even a family member.
- Voice phishing attacks have increased by over 400% in a single year
- Deepfake fraud has surged by hundreds of percent globally
- One in ten people report experiencing a voice-clone scam firsthand
And here’s the most unsettling part:
👉 Research shows people perform worse than random chance when trying to distinguish real voices from AI-generated ones.
⚠️ Real-World Scenario (This Could Happen at AHC)
Imagine this:
- You receive a Teams message from a supervisor asking for a quick favor
- Or an email from “IT” asking you to verify your account
- Or even a phone call that sounds exactly like someone you know
The message is clear. Urgent. Polite. Professional.
And completely fake.
AI allows attackers to:
- Mimic writing styles
- Personalize messages at scale
- Impersonate real people convincingly
- Exploit trust instead of technical vulnerabilities
Why This Works (It’s Not About Intelligence)
Most cyberattacks don’t succeed because of technology—they succeed because of human behavior.
AI amplifies this by targeting:
- Urgency (“I need this right now”)
- Authority (“This is your supervisor”)
- Familiarity (“You recognize the name or voice”)
Scams today can unfold in under 40 minutes from first contact to damage.
🛡️ How to Protect Yourself (What Actually Works Now)
The old advice isn’t enough anymore. Here’s what matters today:
✔️ Pause before acting
If something feels urgent, that’s a red flag—not a reason to rush.
✔️ Verify through a second method
- Got a call? Send a message separately
- Got an email? Contact the person directly
✔️ Be skeptical of “perfect” messages
Good grammar is no longer a sign of legitimacy.
✔️ Never trust voice alone
Even if it sounds real—it might not be.
✔️ Protect your account like it’s your identity
Because it is.
🔍 Why This Matters at a Community College
Colleges are uniquely vulnerable environments:
- Large, diverse user base (students, faculty, staff)
- Frequent communication across platforms
- Heavy reliance on email, cloud tools, and shared systems
One compromised account doesn’t just affect one person—it can be used to:
- Target coworkers
- Send internal phishing emails
- Access sensitive systems and data
🚨 The Bottom Line
We are entering a world where:
- You can’t trust what you read
- You can’t trust what you hear
- And sometimes, you can’t even trust who you think you’re talking to
AI hasn’t just made scams more common—it’s made them more believable than ever before.
📚 Sources
February 2026 Ticket Summary
Here’s a brief overview of ITS activity:
Total Tickets (Whole Department)
- December: 346
- January: 619
- February: 438
Location-less Tickets
233 tickets had no location specified.
Lompoc Valley Campus (LVC) Tickets
20 tickets originated from the Lompoc Valley Campus.
Top 5 Forms Used at LVC:
- Something Broke: 15
- Install Something: 4
- Service Request: 1
Only 3 unique forms used
5 Most Common Request Locations:
- LVC 2: 7
- LVC 1: 7
- LVC 5: 4
- LVC 3: 2
Only 4 unique buildings submitted ticket requests
Santa Maria Valley Campus (SM) Tickets
182 tickets originated from the Santa Maria Valley Campus.
Top 5 Forms Used at SM Campus:
- Something Broke: 95
- Install Something: 31
- Incident Form: 19
- Audio/Visual Event Request: 11
- VOIP Telephone Request: 9
5 Most Common Request Locations:
- Building C: 28
- Building M: 25
- Building A: 22
- Building S: 21
- Building F: 14
📈 Executive-Level Summary
- 438 total tickets submitted in February 2026
- 233 tickets (53%) missing location data
- Santa Maria: 182 tickets
- LVC: 20 tickets
- Most common issue: “Something Broke (iPaaS)”
- Highest activity buildings: C, M, A, S (Santa Maria)
This newsletter was prepared with assistance from an AI-based writing and research tool to help organize information, improve clarity, and support effective campus communication.