[arin-ppml] Policy Proposal: Customer Confidentiality

[Kevin Stange]

Kevin Kargel wrote:
> I am in general opposed to this proposal.  There are good and valid reasons
> for making direct contacts for a network discoverable.  If a host runs amok
> and is causing grave problems then I need to be able to contact the person
> responsible for that host.  I do not need to find a contact for someone
> three tiers up who will contact someone else who will contact someone who
> will contact the host owner.
> 

Many of our customers would be slow to respond or unsure how to handle
direct contact, which is one of the reasons I like this proposal.  Even
when we direct such queries downstream from time to time, we get back a
"what do I do with this?" response and basically end up having to deal
with the issue ourselves.  If there's a suitably insane issue going on
with a customer's machine, contacting us directly can result in
immediate resolution where it might take hours to days contacting the
customer directly.  We have the power to shut down VLANs, issue null
routes, and sometimes just directly access machines to resolve issues.
Chances are that we know a better way to get in touch with the customer
faster that may not be something rwhois would generally contain such as
an IM screen name or alternate phone number or email account, or that
the customer is noted in our system to be away on vacation for 6 weeks
and wants us to shut down a box in the event of anything seriously wrong.

Having centralized contacts gives us a filter, so we can block out
useless contact to our customers and keep track of what kind of strange
things our customers are doing with their IPs, intentionally, or
inadvertently, so that we can handle abuses and keep in touch with
customers to provide guidance.

That said, as it stands now, most abuse reporters just contact us
directly anyway, even if rwhois specifies to contact someone else, so I
don't expect much to change in this regard anyway.


-- 
Kevin Stange
Chief Technology Officer
Steadfast Networks
http://steadfast.net
Phone: 312-602-2689 ext. 203 | Fax: 312-602-2688 | Cell: 312-320-5867

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