Web-conference services

You are a Technical Body (TC, SC, WG, Workshops), a management or a technical group with CEN or CENELEC secretariat and wish to organize Virtual Meetings.

CEN and CENELEC offer you a free access to web conferencing facilities.

The ZOOM account that you will receive is a personal account which is not limited in time (apart from the account disabling criteria as specified below), you will therefore be able to organize CEN or CENELEC meetings without introducing a request to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre (CCMC).

The use of the web-conferencing service is free of charge and includes the use of VOIP (Voice over IP) facilities available for most of the European countries.

Eligibility

People/roles eligible to get a CEN-CENELEC Web Conferencing account :

As of 1 April 2020, eligible roles to get a CEN-CENELEC Web Conferencing account will be as follows:

• Active Secretaries, Convenors, and their Assistant and Acting Secretaries + Support Teams (TC, SC, WG level)
• Active Chairpersons and their support teams

Notes :

• Web conferencing accounts can only be obtained for committees and working groups administered by CEN and CENELEC.
• A Web Conferencing account is only needed to host meetings, or to schedule meetings on behalf of someone else.
• ZOOM is the solution recommended and supported by CEN-CENELEC but is not mandatory.

How does it work in practice?

Web Conferencing account creation :

Eligible persons may request a CEN-CENELEC Zoom account using our contact form, indicating:

• Your name and Email address
• The organization (CEN or CENELEC)
• The reference of the TC(s) and your eligible role in the TC(s)
• If you already have a Zoom account in another organization (ISO, IEC or other)

You will receive a Zoom welcome message asking you to Activate your account. When your account is activated, you may Sign-In to the system and access your personal page.

Notes :

• Please do NOT sign up directly with Zoom as you will only get a free basic Zoom account limited to 40-minute meetings.
• CEN-CENELEC Zoom accounts can only be assigned by CCMC.
• If you already have a Zoom account in another organization (ISO, IEC or other), and want to host Zoom meetings for CEN or CENELEC, please use our contact form. You will receive instructions on the rules to follow to organize CEN/CENELEC meetings.

Web Conferencing account termination :

A CEN-CENELEC Zoom account will be systematically disabled:

• When the person does not have eligible roles in CEN-CENELEC anymore
• When the person did not organize any Zoom meeting during the last 12 months

Scheduling a New Meeting :

In the web interface :

• Access the CEN-CENELEC landing page at : https://cencenelec.zoom.us/
• [Sign In] to your Profile page
• Select “Meetings” in the Navigation Menu, and click on “Schedule a New Meeting”

In the Zoom Client :

• Click on the [Schedule] button to create a Meeting and enter all relevant information

Zoom usage restrictions by some organisations/companies

In view of the risk mitigation measures that have been undertaken, Zoom remains the solution that CEN-CENELEC recommends, supports, and continues to provide free of charge to eligible members of our community for online technical and governance meetings.

However, we understand that some organisations have implemented policies that currently prevent their employees from using Zoom web conferencing.

Where policies only restrict usage of the Zoom desktop client, participants may still be able to use one of these alternative ways of joining a Zoom meeting:

• Phone dial-in
• Use of the Zoom mobile application
• Use of the Zoom web client
• Use of the Skype for Business client

In cases where none of the above is possible, meeting organizers may choose to use a temporary alternative web conferencing solution. Please note that CEN-CENELEC does not endorse or support the usage of any specific alternative solutions.

It is also equally important that those organizations/companies periodically review their security posture on Zoom in light of the number of fixes that have already been made (https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201361953-New-updates-for-Windows).

ZOOM – Security/privacy

Zoom is taking the aspects of security and privacy seriously and has implemented quick actions to address these concerns (see notes from Zoom CEO Eric S. Yuan, here and here).

Several issues related to GDPR compliance and security have been fixed and ZOOM continue further strengthening in this area through targeted initiatives, for instance:

• Luta Security, the recognized global leader in creating robust vulnerability disclosure and bug bounty programs, has signed on to help reboot Zoom’s bug bounty program.
• Alex Stamos, former CSO of Facebook and the director of Stanford’s Internet Observatory, joined Zoom as a consultant to help them identify and implement enhanced security measures.

Get the latest security information from the Zoom blog

CEN-CENELEC security settings

We will also ensure close coordination with ISO and IEC and take all the preventive measures that are possible at our level to mitigate security issues.

In particular, we implemented the following default security and privacy settings for all CEN and CENELEC Zoom users:

• A meeting password is required for all meeting. Note, the password is embedded in the meeting link, so clicking the link invitation will take you directly to the meeting. For meetings organised before 2020-04-08 this setting will not be applied automatically, we therefore recommend that you take all the measures to re-create your meeting (new settings will apply automatically) and inform the participants accordingly.

• Screen sharing is enabled only for the host. The host can grant screen sharing rights to other participants if he/she decides to do so.

• Attention tracking has been removed for all users (this feature was removed by Zoom).

• Possibility for participants to join before meeting starts has been disabled. The ability to join meetings before the host has been disabled.

• Meeting recording authorization is required. Hosts must request approval from participants before recording meetings (ZOOM disclaimer)

• Muting by default. Participants will be automatically muted by when they enter a meeting. The host will unmute participants.

• Cloud recordings have been disabled. The recording functionality remains but will be saved locally on the host local drive.

• Selected data center region limited to “Europe” (and "USA" by design).

General security recommendations

• Keep all your applications updated, including Zoom (Regarding Zoom, you can do so by clicking on "Check for Updates" on your client. You can also use the following link to download the latest version  of the client.).

• Avoid sharing Zoom meeting URLs in social media or public forums.

• Avoid joining a Zoom meeting from a public WIFI without using a VPN to secure your communications.

• Sign-in to the Zoom web interface from the CEN-CENELEC Zoom portal at https://cencenelec.zoom.us/

• Before sharing a print screen of your meeting, verify that the meeting id is not displayed on the image.

Quick Guide and Help documents and Zoom Support

• CEN-CENELEC Quick Help to Zoom meetings
• CEN-CENELEC Quick Guide to Zoom meetings

Extensive information and documentation about Zoom can be found at https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us (Knowledge Base, Documents, Videos & Training).

Any questions and/or remarks? Please use the contact form.