For more best practice recommendations to secure meetings in Site Administration, click here.

Require Strong Passwords for all Meetings, Events, and Sessions

The most effective step to strengthen the security of all your meetings, events, and training sessions is to require a password. Passwords protect against unauthorized attendance because only users with access to the password are able to join. Following the practice of requiring passwords ensures that all meetings, events, and training sessions that are created by hosts are secured.

We recommend you use a high-complexity, nontrivial password. A recommended password includes a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters (for example, $Tu0psrOx!). By setting your password to require at least 11 characters, 1 numeric character, 1 uppercase and lowercase letter, and 1 special character, such as $, &, or %, you'll greatly increase the security for your meeting.

1. Sign in to Webex Site Administration, and navigate to Configuration > Common Site Settings > Options > Security Options.

2. In the Cisco Webex section, check Require strong passwords for meetings.

3. Check and configure the following check boxes:

   • Require mixed case

   • Minimum length

   • Minimum number of numeric

   • Minimum number of alpha

   • Minimum number of special characters

   • Do not allow dynamic web page text for meeting passwords (site name, host's name, username, meeting topic)

   • Do not allow meeting passwords from this list

4. Select Update.

   A secure password will be 11 or more characters, including mixed case, numbers, and special characters. You can use special characters (!, ?, &) for added security.

Require Sign-In When Joining a Meeting, Event, or Training Session

We recommend that you require all users to have an account on your Webex site if sensitive meetings, events, or training sessions are hosted there. When enabled, besides hosts, attendees are also asked for their credentials when they attempt to join a meeting, event, or training session.

In addition to requiring sign-in to your site, we recommend that you require attendees to sign-in when dialing in from a phone. This prevents anyone getting into the meeting or training session without proper credentials.

1. Sign in to Webex Site Administration, and navigate to Configuration > Common Site Settings > Options > Security Options.

2. To require sign in when joining a meeting or training session by phone:

   • Under the Webex Meetings section, check Require users to sign in when joining by phone.

   • Under the Webex Training section, check Require users to have an account when joining by phone.

   When checked and the host requires sign-in, attendees must sign in from their phones. Attendees must have added a phone number and PIN to their profile settings to do so.

3. Select Update.

Prevent Guests from Joining Unlocked Meetings

For unlocked scheduled Webex meetings and Personal Room meetings, we recommend you restrict attendees to only those who have an account on your site. This prevents any guests from joining. Attendees who join by phone without an Attendee ID get placed in the lobby.

1. Sign in to Webex Site Administration, and navigate to Configuration > Common Site Settings > Options > Security Options.

2. In the Webex Meetings Security section under When a meeting is unlocked, check They can't join the meeting.

   Meeting hosts can still schedule meetings that allow guests to join, if they choose to.

3. In the Personal Room Security section under When a meeting is unlocked, check They can't join the meeting.

4. Select Update.

Enforce Meeting Password When Joining from Phone or Video Conferencing Systems

In addition to requiring passwords when users join from a meeting application (for example on Windows or Mac), you should also enforce password requirement on users joining from phone or video conferencing systems. When this option is selected, the system automatically generates an eight-digit numeric password for phone and video conferencing system attendees and adds it to the meeting invitation. This ensures that only people with an invitation can join the meeting when using a phone or video conferencing system.

1. Sign in to Webex Site Administration, and navigate to Configuration > Common Site Settings > Options > Security Options.

2. In the Cisco Webex section:

   • Go to the Webex Meetings section, and check Enforce meeting password when joining by phone.

   • Go to the Webex Meetings section, and check Enforce meeting password when joining by video conferencing systems.

   • Go to the Webex Events events section, and check Enforce event password when joining by phone.

   • Go to the Webex Training section, and check Enforce training session password when joining by phone.

   If any of these options aren't available, contact Webex support to enable them.

3. Select Update.

Enforce Personal Room Locking After a Default Time

We recommend you enforce automatic locking of Personal Rooms after a designated time. When a meeting is started in a Personal Room, the host can accept the default time you set at the site level, or change how many minutes after a meeting starts that they want the Personal Room to lock, including zero minutes.

1. Sign in to Webex Site Administration, and navigate to Configuration > Common Site Settings > Options.

2. In the Personal Room Security section, check Automatically lock the meeting [x] minutes after meeting starts.

3. Set the number of minutes to zero after the meeting starts that the Personal Room is locked. For additional security, you can also require attendees to sign in.

4. Select Update.

Hide Meeting Link from Attendees Within Meetings

Hiding meeting and event links within meetings deters attendees from inviting unwanted guests by making the links less convenient to copy and share. It does not prevent attendees from copying and sharing meeting links from their email invitations.

1. Sign into Webex Administration, and go to Configuration > Common Settings > Options.

2. Scroll down to Security Options > Other and check Hide meeting link from attendee view within meetings (Meetings and Events). This option is unchecked by default.

   When hidden, the Copy Meeting Link option is disabled for attendees in the Meeting Info window, the More Options menu, and the Meeting menu. Hosts can still share meeting links within meetings.

For more best practice recommendations to secure meetings by hosts, click here.

To prevent people from crashing your meetings, there are important options to set to secure your scheduled and Personal Room meetings.

Scheduled Meetings

1. Sign in to your Cisco Webex Site.

2. Go to Meetings and click Schedule.

3. Enter the details for your meeting.

   

4. In the Show advanced options > Scheduling Options > Unlocked meetings section, check Guests can't join the meeting. This will ensure that the attendees of the meeting need to sign in to the Webex site before joining the meeting. Audio-only attendees must also sign in with an audio PIN and videos systems that aren't registered to your organization can't join.

   

5. In the Exclude password section check Exclude password from email invitation. This will ensure that the meeting password is not sent in the email and you must provide the password to attendees by another means, such as by phone.

   If you're scheduling from Microsoft Outlook, in the Meeting information section, select Don't include meeting password in email invitation.

6. Check your meeting details and select Schedule or Start.

What to do next

• Once your meeting has started, lock the meeting once all attendees have joined the meeting by selecting More options > Lock meeting.

• If you find an unwanted participant in your meeting, expel them by right-clicking their name in the Participants panel and selecting Expel.

Personal Room Meetings

You set your Personal Room to automatically lock when your meeting starts. We recommend locking your room at 0 minutes

1. Go to Preferences > My Personal Room > Automatic lock, check the option, and set to 0 minutes.

2. Click Save.

   This is essentially the same as locking your room when you enter it. This measure prevents all attendees in your lobby from automatically joining the meeting. Instead, you’ll see a notification in the meeting when attendees are waiting in the lobby. You can then screen and allow only authorized attendees into your meeting.

   Consider your Personal Room URL as a public URL, and unless the site administrator has configured Personal Rooms to only be used by signed-in users, anyone can wait for you in your lobby. Always check the names before you let the attendees into your room.