IT Center Blog

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The communication and collaboration tool Webex has been in use at RWTH Aachen University since November 2023. This is currently being criticized due to security incidents (German only).

As IT security is a very high priority for RWTH, the issue is being taken very seriously by both the IT Center as a whole and the relevant specialist department.

Following discussions with the manufacturer Cisco and our own intensive investigation, we were able to establish that RWTH and its Webex users are not affected by the security incidents.

The necessary security precautions had already been implemented at RWTH before Webex was introduced.

Options for Planning Webex Meetings

You have several options for planning a meeting from Webex. The prerequisite is that you have activated the “Webex Meetings Organizer” in the TK-Portal.

Private Meeting

If you want to plan meetings with the highest possible level of security, you can schedule a “Private Meeting”. You can select this when planning the meeting in Webex under the advanced settings in the top right-hand corner.

Only people who are registered at RWTH can then take part in this meeting. They must then use the Webex app to participate and be connected to the RWTH network with their device – either directly or via VPN.

When holding a private meeting, your media data will not leave the RWTH data network.

Standard Meeting

With the “Standard Meeting” meeting type, your media data is encrypted end-to-end, but can be transmitted via the Webex Cloud.

People who are not registered at RWTH can then also take part in this meeting. However, so that you still have control over the participants in your meeting, you can set how to deal with people who are not on the invitation list. You can choose between three options:

Persons not invited…

a) can join the meeting.

b) wait in a lobby until they are admitted.

c) cannot join the meeting.

We generally recommend that you choose option b) or c) so that uninvited guests do not simply turn up at your meeting.

Further information on Webex security can be found on the IT Center website and in the Webex FAQs on IT Center Help.

Do you have any questions about Webex? Then please contact the IT-ServiceDesk team at servicedesk@itc.rwth-aachen.de.

Responsible for the content of this article are Thomas Böttcher and Corinna Hausberg.

Kategorie: IT-Security, Support, Services & Updates
Schlagworte: IT security, IT-Security, Webex
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