Exercise 2.3: Configuring password settings

In this exercise, you will learn how to configure the settings associated with password expiration and password reset.

Overview

By default in SmartCloud for Social Business, passwords do not expire. Enforcing a password expiration period helps ensure that passwords are changed frequently. There are three optional password expiration intervals available: 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days.

You can also configure instructions to display that will help users reset their passwords. These instructions can contain the following information:
  • Link to organization's support page
  • Phone number to call support
  • Link that automatically sends a notification to a specified user indicating that the user needs assistance with their password
  • Custom message

When any of these settings are configured, if a user clicks the Forgot Password? link on the login page, enters their username when prompted, and clicks Continue, the password reset information that you configured displays to the user.

Objectives

After completing this exercise, you should be able to:
Parent topic: Lesson 2: Configuring the organization account
Previous topic: Exercise 2.2: Viewing or changing your organization settings
Next topic: Exercise 2.4: Restricting the IP address range

Procedure

Step
Action
1
Log in and navigate to the Administration panel. For detailed steps, see the procedure document: Accessing the Administration Panel.
2
From the navigation pane, click Security.
Click Security.
3
In the Password Settings section of the Security page, click Edit Settings.
Click the Edit Settings button.
4
In the password settings box, change the settings as desired. Click the Save Changes button when you are finished.
On this page, you can:
  • Set the password expiration for your users to no expiration, expiration after 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days.
  • Provide password reset support information to your users, which can be any or all of the following:
    • URL for your organization's Support website
    • Phone number to call your organization's help desk
    • Automatically generate a notification message requesting assistance to the specified person in your organization.
    • A custom message
5
After your changes are saved, user passwords will expire according to the time frame that you set. In addition, any password reset support options that you configured will now display when users click the Forgot Password? link on the login page.
Your custom settings display on the password reset page that is displayed to users when they click the Forgot Password? link on the login page.
Note: Only the options that you configured will display for the user. If you left one or more of the Password Reset Support fields unchecked, they will not display for the user.

If you configured the option to send a notification requesting assistance, a notification message similar to the following will be sent to the specified e-mail address:

A notification with instructions for resetting a user's password are sent to the specified email address if notifications are configured.

Test Yourself

Question Answer
Do SmartCloud for Social Business passwords expire by default? No. The default setting is no password expiration.

Optionally, Administrators can choose for their users' passwords to expire after 30, 60 or 90 days.

Resources