As more people shift to remote work, school, and gatherings Cisco Webex Meetings Suite helps you meet as if you’re in the same room. Site Administrators can set options that are used site-wide to enforce security and making certain additional security options available to meeting, event, and training hosts. Setting these options restricts guests from joining meetings on your site. Guests include people who don't have an account on your site, people who haven't signed in to their account on your site, external video systems that aren't registered to your organization, and audio-only users who haven't signed in with an audio PIN.

You can prevent unwanted guests by doing the following:

  • Requiring strong passwords

  • Requiring attendees to have an account on your site

  • Requiring passwords for phone-only and video-device users

  • Securing Personal Rooms

For Webex Meetings customers that use Webex Teams, to secure your organization's data and prevent data being shared outside of your organization, see Block External Users in Cisco Webex Teams Spaces for Your Organization.

Control Hub

For more about securing meetings in Control Hub, read Webex best practices for secure meetings: Control Hub.

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.


 

Adding passwords to your meetings, events, and training sessions doesn’t affect the join experience of authorized attendees. Participants easily join by selecting the URL in the email invitation or from the Webex site.

  1. Sign in to Control Hub, and go to Services > Meeting.

  2. Click Sites, choose the Webex site that you want to change the settings for, and then click Settings.
  3. Under Common Settings, select Security.

  4. Under Strong passwords, toggle on Strong passwords.

  5. To configure the following options, toggle on:

    • 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:

  6. Click Save.


     

    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 Control Hub, and select Services > Meeting.

  2. Click Sites, choose the Webex site that you want to change the settings for, and then click Settings.
  3. Under Common Settings, select Security.

  4. To require sign in when joining a meeting or training session by phone, under Security Options in the Webex section:

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

    • Under the Webex Training Phone Settings 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.

  5. 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. From the customer view in https://admin.webex.com, select Services, go to Meetings, and choose Sites.

  2. Select the Webex site to change the settings for, and select Configure Site.

  3. Under Common Settings, select Security.

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


     

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

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

  6. 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 Control Hub, and go to Services > Meeting.

  2. Click Sites, choose the Webex site that you want to change the settings for, and then click Settings.
  3. Under Common Settings, select Security.

  4. In the Webex Meetings section:

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

    • Go to Webex Meetings Video Conferencing System Settings (Only applicable for CMR Cloud), and check Enforce meeting password when joining by video conferencing systems.

    • In the Webex Events section, check Enforce event password when joining by phone.

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


     

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

  5. Click Save.

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 Control Hub, and go to Services > Meeting.
  2. Click Sites, choose the Webex site that you want to change the settings for, and then click Settings.
  3. Under Common Settings, select Security.

  4. In the Webex meeting security section, check Enable automatically lock the meeting after the meeting starts.

  5. 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.

  6. Click Save.

Hide meeting links 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 in to Control Hub, and go to Services > Meeting.
  2. Click Sites, choose the Webex site that you want to change the settings for, and then click Settings.
  3. Under Common Settings, select Security.

  4. In the Other section, 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.

Site Administration

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.


 

Adding passwords to your meetings, events, and training sessions doesn’t affect the join experience of authorized attendees. Participants easily join by selecting the URL in the email invitation or from the Webex site.

  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.


 

Participants who join using the Webex Meetings or Webex Training application have to authenticate, so they won’t be asked for authentication when connecting to audio. Thus, this restriction impacts users who join only by phone.

Also, consider restricting video conferencing systems from dialing into a meeting that requires attendees to sign in. Since users can’t sign in from a video conferencing system, allowing video conferencing systems to join puts meetings at risk of being joined by an unauthorized user.

Keep in mind, that using this option limits your meeting, event, or session to internal attendees. This is an excellent way to keep your meetings secure, but can be limiting if the host needs to have an external guest.

  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.

Hosts

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.


 

These settings work only for scheduled meetings and not 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.