Powered On: Oct 2025

Powered On: OCT 2025

Employee Spotlight: Chris Maldonado

Chris Maldonado is a Helpdesk Specialist II and has been part of the College of the Canyons family since 2003. He works at the Computer Support Services Helpdesk alongside Sean Hughes and is excited to finally have the chance to be spotlighted.

A lifelong Newhall resident of 35 years, Chris’s journey with COC began as a student before joining as Classified staff. Over the years, he has supported the campus as both a Helpdesk Specialist and an AV Technician, so chances are you’ve spoken with him—whether in person or over the phone.
Known for his sense of humor, Chris jokes that if he doesn’t make you laugh, you’ll get your money back—cash only, no crypto.

Each year, Chris “disappears” for about six weeks to visit his mom, family, and friends in Argentina. While he claims it’s to spend time in Buenos Aires, we suspect it might also be a clever way to escape the California winter.

Outside of work, Chris is a strong believer in staying active. On weekends, you’ll often find him running through Valencia or swimming at the gym. He calls his routine “cardio”—which he admits isn’t everyone’s favorite—but he’s always happy to have company if you want to join his “running club” (currently a club of one).

A lifelong gamer, Chris describes himself as an armchair video game designer and Imagineer. He still enjoys gaming and is always looking for new friends to play with online.

At home, Chris lives with his dad, whom he helps care for during his retirement years, and he enjoys spending time with his brother’s family in Valencia

Image of a person looking deep into the camera with the curiosity of a child and the wisdom of an oak tree.

A Current Trend in Phishing: It’s from someone you know?

By Michael Gunther and Sarah Schnittker

College of the Canyons remains diligent in identifying cybersecurity threats and, consequently, recently observed a rise in phishing emails that appear to come from trusted or familiar senders. These attacks are especially dangerous as they exploit compromised accounts—meaning the email may belong to someone you know, but the account itself has been taken over by attackers—or take on the appearance of reputable companies to earn your trust.

What do these emails look like?
- The phishing messages typically arrive from a legitimate-looking email address (often a colleague, vendor, or partner).
- Many can contain minimal or vague wording such as “Please see the attached file” or “Here is the document you requested.”
- They often include a link to a PDF or shared file that, when clicked, directs you to an unfamiliar URL.
- Present a Microsoft service login screen (or similar prompt) designed to steal your credentials
Why does this matter?
- Because these emails come from addresses you recognize, it’s easy to assume they are safe. However, an account may be compromised without the owner realizing it. If you enter your login details on the attacker’s fake site, they gain access to your account—potentially spreading the attack further.
How to Spot the Red Flags: Always slow down and scrutinize every message, even from trusted contacts, especially if the message contains:
- Unexpected or vague wording (e.g., no context, just “open this link”).
- Mismatched or suspicious URLs (hover over the link before clicking—does the address look legitimate?).
- Urgency without details (attackers often want you to act quickly without thinking).
- Odd formatting or tone that doesn’t match how the sender normally writes.
- Login prompts outside of the normal workflow (for example, a Microsoft login page triggered by an unfamiliar link).
Protect Yourself:
- Verify before you click. If something feels off, confirm with the sender through a different channel (call, text, Teams, etc.)
- Check the URL carefully before entering any credentials. Some websites mimic creditable sites by misspelling the name (such as Microsoft).
- Report suspicious emails immediately to the Help Desk, or our Information Security team directly via Hsiawen Hull if you believe to have already opened, clicked, and engaged with a phishing email.
- Avoid reusing passwords across accounts and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever possible.

Free Tech Training

by Phillip Trujillo

Did you know that you have access to free technical training at CoC?

The Cornerstone Vision Resource Center has classes ranging from Word, to Photoshop, to programming with Python. To access Cornerstone simply log into PortalGuard (https://portalguard.canyons.edu/) and then click on Cornerstone. From here you can click on the search icon in the top right corner, or click on the “Learner’s Home” and search for things like “Word”, “Excel”, “Photoshop”, “Python”, or “video editing”.

Keep in mind that Vision Resource Center changes their training partners every so often, so if you don’t see something that interests you now, it never hurts to check back later. I am constantly surprised by the breadth and depth of classes available to me.

Recently I learned Microsoft has some training courses with Microsoft Learn (https://learn.microsoft.com/). It focusses on career paths and professionals but is still a good resource to learn about MS applications. Your college credentials are also MS credentials, meaning you can login with your college email credentials. You can take classes based on Microsoft products, Career paths, or use AI to help create a custom training path. There is also a search option to browse classes for MS products like Outlook or Teams. One of the nice features is that many of the classes have a hands-on component utilizing cloud-based applications and programming/development tools, so there is nothing to install.

If online self-study is not really your learning preference, Professional Development offers many technology classes year-round, during Flex week, and Classified development week. If you are looking for something special, email a suggestion to Professional Development at prodev@canyons.edu

Other websites that I find useful:

https://www.w3schools.com/ I use this all the time as quick reference documentation and examples of commands and syntax when programming or creating database queries. It also offers great tutorials for many programming languages, web development, database queries, and even excel formulas. It has a web based “try it yourself” tools to play around and see how options change the results.

https://code.org/ is a site I have suggested to parents who are looking for something to help their kids get into computer science. It offers curriculum and tools to help students, teachers, and parents learn and teach computer science with tutorials and activities for all ages. It uses web-based drag and drop programming blocks to make programming visually easier. The cool part is that they have a repository of games and samples that can be edited so that one can learn from actual examples and see how their edits can change the way the game behaves.

Have fun learning and exploring.

Upcoming Change:

Classroom Computer Login Required

To strengthen security across campus, Information Technology has begun removing autologin from classroom computers. Over the next six months, this change will be phased in across all classrooms. Faculty and students will need to log in with their own credentials.

Faculty Login: