Revised/Retitled - Draft Policy ARIN-2019-5: Validation of POCs Referenced as Abuse Contacts

[ARIN]

The following has been revised and retitled:

* Draft Policy ARIN-2019-5: Validation of POCs Referenced as Abuse Contacts

Formerly:

* Draft Policy ARIN-2019-5: Validation of Abuse-mailbox

Revised text is below and can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/drafts/2019_5/

You are encouraged to discuss all Draft Policies on PPML. The AC will 
evaluate the discussion in order to assess the conformance of this draft 
policy with ARIN's Principles of Internet number resource policy as 
stated in the Policy Development Process (PDP). Specifically, these 
principles are:

* Enabling Fair and Impartial Number Resource Administration
* Technically Sound
* Supported by the Community

The PDP can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/pdp/

Draft Policies and Proposals under discussion can be found at:
https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/drafts/

Regards,

Sean Hopkins
Policy Analyst
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)



Draft Policy ARIN-2019-5: Validation of POCs Referenced as Abuse Contacts

Problem Statement:

The current policy, “3.6. Annual Validation of ARIN’s Public Whois Point 
of Contact Data” does not provide sufficient validation of the actual 
availablility of the abuse mailbox.

As a result, some resource-holders (LIRs and end-users) might not keep 
this contact information up to date, or might use a non-responsive 
mailbox which may be full or not actively monitored. Some may even 
respond only to ARIN emails.

In practice, this contact becomes ineffective for reporting abuse and 
generally gives rise to security issues and costs for the victims.

Furthermore, POCs are verified only every year and provide a very 
relaxed response time (60 days).

Finally, the proposal seeks to standardize the abuse-c/abuse-mailbox as 
a pointer to an actual abuse POC in order to facilitate development of 
tools that can work across regions.

Proposed Policy Statement:

Add to section 3.6 of the NRPM as follows:

3.6.6 Policies specific to Abuse Contacts

3.6.6.1 Abuse Contact Information

The Abuse Contact will reference a POC object holding Abuse contact 
information. Each org must have an Abuse Contact. Optionally, resource 
records may point directly to an Abuse Contact as an override to the 
corresponding organizational Abuse Contact specific to that resource.

3.6.6.2 Email Addresses in POCs used as Abuse Contacts

Emails sent to this address must ultimately reach a human processor who 
evaluates each message received.

Messages cannot be automatically filtered because legitimate abuse 
reports may include contents which would trigger such filters.

Reports to this mailbox may undergo initial automatic processing for the 
following purposes:

* An automated reply assigning a ticket number, applying classification 
procedures, etc.
* An indication of the required information for an abuse report to be 
processed, such as pertinent logs, copy of the spam message with full 
headers, or any other relevant evidence of abuse.
* The intent is to facilitate automated abuse reporting in consistent 
formats lowering cost for both victims and those processing legitimate 
abuse reports.

3.6.6.3 Abuse Contact Validation Objectives Staff must develop a 
validation procedure which accomplishes all of the following objectives:

1. A simple process which allows POCs to validate that the validation 
request is actually from ARIN.
2. Avoids exclusively automated processing.
3. Confirms that the person performing the validation understands the 
procedure and relevant policies. That the mailbox is regularly monitored 
and that abuse reports receive a response.
4. Maximum validation period is 15 days.
5. If validation fails, escalate to the LIR for an additional 15 days.

The initial and escalation validation periods may be modified by ARIN 
staff, if deemed appropriate. In such a case, the community shall be 
notified at least 5 days prior to implementation of the change (at least 
via arin-announce and arin-ppml) including the rationale for the change.

3.6.6.4 Validation of Abuse Contacts

ARIN will validate that the email listed in each POC referenced as an 
abuse contact for one or more ORG or Resource records under any of the 
following circumstances:

* When the POC record is created or first referenced as an Abuse POC.
* When a referenced POC record is updated.
* No less than every 6 months
* At any other time ARIN staff deems necessary

3.6.6.5 Escalation to ARIN

To avoid fraudulent behavior (for example an email address that responds 
only to ARIN emails or emails with a specific subject or content), or 
failure to comply with other aspects of this policy, ARIN designates to 
receive reports and to escalate any such situations. This will allow for 
re-validation (per section 3.6.6.4) and even intervention by ARIN and, 
where appropriate the application of the relevant policies, procedures, 
or contractual requirements.