In message <612ebb9c.4070...@ipinc.net>, Ted Mittelstaedt <t...@ipinc.net> wrote:
>On 8/29/2021 3:15 PM, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote: >> AFRINIC's free pool and also (b) manipulating the WHOIS records of numerous >> long-abandonded AFRINIC legacy blocks so as to effectively cede control of >> those blocks to various other parties. > >This is precisely why many years ago I pushed for - and got - annual >verification in section 3.6 of the NRPM I was 1 of 3 others who pushed >this section into the NRPM Although I am certainly in agreement that Section 3.6 of the NRPM is a Good Thing, even if a similar provision had become community-ratified policy in the AFRINIC region I do not believe that it would have made any notable difference with respect to the stolen AFRINIC legacy blocks. The problem was that somebody managed to get -inside- of AFRINIC and managed to diddle all of the contact info for all of the abandoned legacy blocks... essentially all of which were /16 or larger... and the new/fradulent contact info for these blocks, both phone numbers and email contact addresses, were effectively owned by the thieves. So any attempts by AFRINIC to contact those folks for verification purposes were greeted with responses along the lines of "Yea, we are the real guys and we are alive and well. Don't mess with our stuff." To be clear, I am *not* fully persuaded that this part of The Great AFRINIC Heist was also carried out by the now disgraced and dismissed former AFRINIC employee, Ernest Byaruhanga. There exists a finite non-zero probability that someone else performed these manipulations of legacy block contact WHOIS records, or else allowed it to be done. There is also a finite non-zero probability that AFRINIC was simply hacked in a manner that allowed certain outsiders to simply alter any and all AFRNIC WHOIS records at will. In case anyone is interested, here is a summary of all of the currently announced routes to all of the still-stolen AFRINIC legacy IPv4 address space: https://pastebin.com/raw/vx9zrmTv Regards, rfg _______________________________________________ ARIN-PPML You are receiving this message because you are subscribed to the ARIN Public Policy Mailing List (ARIN-PPML@arin.net). Unsubscribe or manage your mailing list subscription at: https://lists.arin.net/mailman/listinfo/arin-ppml Please contact i...@arin.net if you experience any issues.