Learn how BC fights spam, how to prevent email viruses, and how to report electronic abuse.
You must be enrolled in Google 2-Step Verification in order to access BC Google services (Mail, Drive, Calendar). Failure to enroll will result in loss of access to your BC Google account (Mail, Drive, etc.). To unlock your account you will need to contact the BC Help Center.
Google 2-Step Verification (also known as two-factor authentication) adds an extra layer of security to your account in case your password is stolen.
- Download the Gmail app on your mobile device (optional but highly recommended): Android | iPhone/iPad. Even if you prefer to use a different email app on a daily basis, adding the Gmail app will help simplify 2-step verification. After downloading it, configure Gmail for your BC account.
- Enroll in 2-Step: Go to the Google 2-Step Enrollment page and follow the prompts. Set up the Google Prompt option (via the Gmail or the Google [Search] app on your device).
- Configure at least one other backup option.
Tip: In case you don’t have access to your phone, it is a good idea to set up backup codes. Then print the codes & put them in your wallet.
Once you’ve enabled 2-Step, when you access your BC Google account (Gmail, Drive, Calendar, etc.) from a new device, it will require both your login information and a secondary verification.
Frequently Asked Questions
2-Step Verification (also known as two-factor authentication, multi-factor authentication [MFA], or 2FA) adds a second layer of protection to the login process. 2-Step Verification combines something you know (your password) with something you have (a phone or code). You most likely already have experience using 2-Step Verification with Eagle VPN or with an online bank account.
Google 2-Step adds extra security, and helps safeguard you from phishing scams and ransomware. This additional protection aligns with best practices in account security, and is a new compliance requirement for BC’s cyber insurance coverage.
ITS recommends you use the Google Prompt option (via the Gmail or the Google [Search] app on your device), and configure at least one other backup option.
In case you don’t have access to your phone, it is also a good idea to set up backup codes. Then print the codes & put them in your wallet.
In general, you will need to use 2-Step the first time you access your Google account using a new device. Once you log into your BC Google account (Gmail, Drive, Calendar, etc.) and complete 2-Step Verification on your phone or computer you will have the option to “remember this device.” After that, Google will not prompt you for 2-Step Verification on that device unless you change your password or if Google suspects that your account has been breached.
No, it does not. Google 2-Step Verification is different from BC 2-Step Verification:
- BC 2-Step Verification uses Duo to verify your identity and login to secure BC services such as Eagle VPN, MyBill, PeopleSoft HR, and Peoplesoft Financials. For more information about BC 2-Step Verification, visit bc.edu/2step.
- Google 2-Step Verification adds an extra layer of security to your BC Google account. You must set up Google 2-Step Verification separately from BC 2-Step Verification.
If you don't have a mobile device, you have a few options for 2-Step set up:
- Use a land line phone to receive a voice call.
- Set up backup codes.
- Use an authenticator app on a web browser.
Before enabling 2-Step within your Google account, make sure you are running the latest version of your email client that supports a special protocol called “OAuth2.”
Apple Mail
You need to be using macOS Catalina (v. 10.15.4) or higher to do Google 2-Step in Apple Mail.
Outlook
You need to be using Office 2019 or higher to do Google 2-Step. The version of Outlook that comes with Office 2016 does not support OAuth2.
Thunderbird
Step 1: Make sure you are running the latest version of Thunderbird:
- Select “Help” -> “About Thunderbird.” If an update is available, install it.
Step 2: Make sure you are using “OAuth2” for inbound and outbound mail settings:
- From the top right menu, select the 3 vertical bars and select Account Settings.
- On the left, select Server Settings and on the right make sure the “Authentication method” is set to: OAuth2
- On the right, select “Outgoing Server (SMTP)”:
- Edit the outbound email server name to: smtp.gmail.com
- Make sure the “Authentication method” is set to: OAuth2 - Close Thunderbird and then restart it.
- The first time you send or receive email, you will be prompted to log into your Google account. When prompted, allow Thunderbird access to your account.
Yes, but only as an authenticator app to get a passcode for 2-Step. Duo will not send push notifications like it does for VPN or Peoplesoft. To get push notifications, you need to install the Gmail app or the Google (Search) app.
Using Duo Mobile as Your Authenticator App
To set up Duo Mobile app for your authenticator app:
- Follow instructions to turn on Google 2-Step Verification using an authenticator app. Ignore any mentions of Google Authenticator or other mobile applications — you'll be using Duo Mobile instead.
- Follow the "Third-Party Account Setup" instructions on the Duo's Guide to Two-Factor Authentification page. Important: When the barcode appears, open your Duo Mobile app. DO NOT DOWNLOAD Google's Authenticator app (as instructed on the screen).
To use Duo Mobile app as your authenticator app:
- When prompted to validate on Google, you will be instructed to use the Google Authenticator app. Instead, use the Duo Mobile app to get the passcode.
In case you don’t have access to your phone, it is a good idea to set up backup codes. Then print the codes & put them in your wallet.
If you don't have access to any of your enrolled secondary devices or backup codes, contact the BC Help Center at 617-552-HELP (4357) for assistance.
Be sure to install the Gmail app, so you can receive Google prompts on your phone when you are connected to a secure wireless network.
In case you don’t have access to your phone, it is a good idea to set up backup codes. Then print the codes & put them in your wallet.
If you don't have access to any of your enrolled secondary devices or backup codes, contact the BC Help Center at 617-552-HELP (4357) for assistance.
Please do not share your login credentials with another person. Instead, give them delegate access to your Google account.
You may have set up your BC Google account on your iPhone as a Microsoft Exchange account. You can resolve this problem by removing the account and re-adding it as a Google account by following these steps below:
- Remove the Microsoft Exchange Account:
- Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts, then select your BC Google account and click Delete Account.
- Re-Add it as a Google Account:
- Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts > Add Account, select Google
- At the Google sign-in page, enter your BCusername@bc.edu, then tap Next.
- Enter your Secondary Password, then tap Next.
- Toggle the settings you want to add to the phone (calendar, contacts, etc), then tap Save.
If the app doesn’t offer “Sign in with Google,” you can either:
- Switch to a more secure app or device
- Use App Passwords
When you use Google 2-Step Verification, some less secure apps or devices may be blocked from accessing your Google Account. App Passwords are a way to let the blocked app or device access your Google Account.
Please make sure you are enrolled for your BC Google Account and not a personal account. To see if Google 2-Step is enabled, be sure you are viewing your BC Google account, and visit: https://myaccount.google.com/security
If you do not turn on 2-Step, forwarding will continue to work, but you won’t be able to log into your BC Google account. To access your account, you will need to contact your TC, the Help Center, or go to the Walk-In Help Desk.
New students, faculty & staff: You have 1 week to set up Google 2-Step Verification after you first login to your BC Google account. If you do not set up Google 2-Step within this time, you will get the message below when attempting to sign into your BC Google account. To access your account, you will need to contact your TC, the Help Center, or go to the Walk-In Help Desk.
Shared Google Account FAQs
- Only one person (the “owner”) should have the password for an account and that person is responsible for that account.
- The “owner” of the shared account should set up Google 2-Step verification with multiple verification methods (and at least include a department phone).
- All other people accessing the shared account need to be set up as delegates. Learn more about delegates. How to set up Gmail delegation (video by Google).
Security Note: Sharing passwords with others is not secure. If Google detects multiple logins from different devices at the same time, it will assume the account is compromised and suspend it. Please give anyone who needs access to the account delegate access.
More Email Security
Phishing, Spam & Viruses
Phishing occurs when a person attempts to steal personal information or install malicious software on your computer with the intention of stealing money or personal information from you. Cybercriminals can do this in a number of ways, all of which require some action on your part. They might email you, call you on the phone, post a link on your Facebook wall, or convince you to download something off a website. The best way to protect against phishing scams is to know the signs.
Think You've Been Compromised?
Report a Security Incident
If you think you’ve been the victim of a phishing email, email security@bc.edu to report it. A member of the IT Security team will follow-up with you.
Protect Your Account
- Change your BC Password and BC Gmail Passwords. Phishing emails often target your credentials so they can access your email account, or your BC account, and gain access to your private data. Change your passwords, and take away their access.
- Change other passwords. If you use your BC passwords on any other accounts, change those passwords as well.
- Log out of all other Gmail Sessions. If a bad guy got a hold of your BC Gmail login, they may be logged into your account. Kick them out! In the bottom right corner of Gmail, click Details and then Sign out all other web sessions.
- Check your Sent Mail folder. Bad guys often use compromised email accounts to send malicious messages to others in your contacts. If you see emails were sent from your account which you did not send, this would confirm your account has been compromised, and will let you know who has received an email from your account.
- Check your mail forwarding settings. Bad guys often enable mail forwarding, so messages sent to your email will be forwarded to an account of their preference. Disable unwanted email forwarding by going to Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP > Disable forwarding > Save.
- Check your Google email settings and remove any suspicious accounts. Go to Settings > Accounts > Send Mail As.
- Scan your computer for malware or viruses.
Spam email has rapidly become a critical problem for all email service providers, both public and private. Boston College ITS has implemented policies and technologies to protect the BC email system.
How BC Fights Spam
- BC Gmail blocks and quarantines messages it identifies as spam. When you use BC Gmail on the web, or with the official Gmail app, Google uses machine learning to analyze messages marked as spam to help protect other BC users from similar spam and abuse.
- BC email users are required to enter their password to send email. This prevents computer viruses from sending large amounts of spam email from affected computers.
- BC continuously evaluates new technologies to leverage against spam.
Spam Reduction Tips
- Keep your operating system and antivirus software up-to-date.
- When you receive unwanted email, do not reply to it, click links in it, or click “Remove me" links unless you can verify their authenticity. If you know the sender to be legitimate, proceed to the sender's website, which should contain the option to unsubscribe from the mailing list. Even if an email containing links appears to be from someone you know, verify the legitimacy of any links with the sender.
- Use caution when disclosing your email address. The more locations your email is recorded, the more likely you are to receive spam. Read the fine print, especially privacy policies, when signing up for online services. Consider establishing a second free email account with Google, Hotmail, or similar provider, and using that second address for your online shopping and commercial needs.
- Be skeptical. Educate yourself. Spammers go to great lengths to get their messages through and often try to deceive you. Be skeptical and be careful.
Steps to Protect Yourself
- Do not download or open any unknown files that are attached to an email; they could be viruses. If you are unsure, err on the side of caution, and do not open the attached files. Important: If you must download an attached file to an email, make sure to save it and scan it for viruses before you open it.
- Remember to keep your virus protection updated by setting antivirus software to auto-update. Also, be careful not to "cancel" out of auto-update if it tries to run when you are using your computer. Note: All BC-owned computers have virus protection software set to auto-update.
- Turn off macros in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. There is a widespread set of viruses known as macro viruses. These are viruses designed to run when you open a Microsoft Office product such as Word. If macros are turned off, it is unlikely that a virus will be able to launch itself and do harm to your computer.
Reporting an Email Virus
If you get a virus from an infected file:
- Inform the person you originally got the infected file from.
- Inform people who have access to the file on the network.
- Inform anyone that you emailed the infected file to.
Please do not send a warning to everyone you know. ITS can propagate such messages in an efficient manner, and these sorts of warnings can cause other problems.
Electronic Abuse
While Boston College strives to provide an open computing environment to foster collaboration and learning, there are policies defining appropriate use of the BC network and computing resources, such as email. Before reporting electronic abuse, make sure you are familiar with BC's computing policies and guidelines.
Examples of Electronic Abuse and Appropriate Action to Take
- Your system/server has been or is being attacked: Report the abuse immediately and do not make any changes to the system until you hear from the ITS security team on campus. You may accidentally remove vital information that can be used as evidence.
- You received offensive or threatening email or voicemail: Do not delete the offensive message as it can be used as evidence.
- You suspect someone knows or is using your BC password: Report the compromise immediately with any substantiating evidence. Change your password immediately.
- You are aware of software copyright violations at Boston College.
Report Electronic Abuse
Send an email to abuse@bc.edu describing the electronic abuse. You must show the full message headers of any email message that you are forwarding. Do not delete the email from your inbox until you have heard back from us.
Encrypted Email with Virtru
If you need to send confidential emails as part of your job, you may want to consider requesting Virtru. Virtru is an email security tool that allows you to:
- encrypt emails
- prevent a forwarded encrypted email from being read
- set a read expiration date on encrypted messages
- and revoke the ability to read an email after it is sent
Getting Started with Virtru
If you think you may need this service, contact your Technology Consultant. Once approved, install Virtru for Gmail or Outlook.
Email recipients do not need to install Virtru to read or respond to your email. Recipients of an encrypted email will not be able to access the message directly from their inbox. Rather, they will be prompted to "unlock" the message, and verify their email address.
ITS recommends you inform your recipients to expect an encrypted email, since they will be prompted to take extra steps to unlock the message. The best way to do this is to add a customized intro to your message. Be sure to include information that only your recipient would know, or write it in such a way that they know it's really you.
Partially. You can install the Chrome plug-in, which will allow you to decrypt and respond to any Virtru messages sent to you. However, you will not be able to initiate a Virtru encrypted email.
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, & Conformance (DMARC)
As part of an ongoing effort to combat phishing scams and increase email security, the Information Technology Services department is implementing the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) protocol. BC ITS can use DMARC to protect messages sent from authorized BC senders and stop messages from unauthorized ones. By default, authorized BC senders include all students, faculty, and staff sending messages from actual BC Gmail accounts.
BC Implementation of DMARC
- Starting June 1, 2022, ITS will begin to quarantine messages that are not sent from DMARC-compliant senders (See below for a list of DMARC Compliant Senders).
- Within 6 weeks, all messages from non-compliant senders will be quarantined.
- Quarantined messages can be found in your Gmail Spam folder (in the Gmail web interface or Gmail app).
- In fall 2022, ITS will switch from quarantining non-compliant messages to rejecting them. This means messages sent from non-complaint senders will not reach any recipient, not even their spam folder.
DMARC Compliant Senders
If you are sending from any one of these you do not need to do anything:
- BC Google account
- Listserv.bc.edu
- BC bulk mailer (Maestro)
- BC servers/devices that send mail through relay.bc.edu or eblast.bc.edu (this includes most, if not all, apps/services in the data center)
- Qualtrics
- CVENT
Additionally, ITS has spent 2+ years trying to identify a variety of email marketing, survey, and other tools that were not DMARC compliant (and the BC staff members who were using them), and then worked to make them DMARC compliant.
How do I know if emails from my tool/application will be affected?
Send a test email from the application to your BC Gmail account. From the Gmail web interface choose ‘show original’ and you will be given a report on SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. As long as the message passes DMARC, you are all set.
Get Help
If your message does NOT pass DMARC, please reach out to itsstaff.dmarc.support@bc.edu as soon as possible so we can engage with the tool/vendor to achieve compliance.
Phishing Simulation
Boston College implemented a Phishing Simulation program for staff to increase awareness and education related to phishing emails, therefore decreasing the risk of exposure of University data. Programs currently available by department request.
Why is BC Doing This?
Colleges and universities continue to report increased phishing incidents in which bad actors try to trick people into clicking on malicious links in an effort to steal passwords, access personal or University data, and in some cases encrypt data and demand money for the data to be unencrypted.
Sample Phishing Simulation Educational Web Page
If you mistakenly click on a phishing simulation email link or attachment, you will be taken to a web page that explains which characteristics of the email were clues of a typical scam.
Sample Phishing Simulation Email
