> Planet Communications & Computing Facility
> Tel: 1 (212) 894-3704 ext. 1033
> Fax: 1 (419) 821-8581
>
> November 7, 1999
>
>
> Mr. Paul Vixie
> Internet software Consortium
> 950 Charter Street
> Redwood City, CA 94063 Faxed: 1.650.779.7055
>
>
> Dear Mr. Vixie:
>
> I am writing to you today with respect to a Mr. David Conrad your
> executive director. Mr. Conrad has made a number of statements in the
> newsgroup comp.protocols.dns.bind which are false and misleading.
>
> In his email dated November 3rd, 1999 Mr. Conrad said "PCCF has _no_
> relation whatsoever with ISC, we don't know who these people are, what
> they are trying to do, why they are trying to do it, or whether they can
> be trusted". This statement is a lie. We have contacted you on a number
> of occasions concerning the bind survey. We have attempted to enlist your
> assistance in closing down security issues related to you negligence in
> programming bind 4.9.5, 4.9.6 and 8.1.1.
>
> So to claim the ISC has no knowledge of us and our intentions is a lie
> which I assume has been made for no better purpose then to reduce your
> liability and exposure to your own negligence.
>
> Mr. Vixie this culture of lies you support must stop. This orgy of
> deception must end. Your failures and negligence in developing BIND can
> not be buried in some dark corner of the Internet, away from prying eyes.
> On the contrary, I see your failures and negligence as an opportunity to
> build a better and more secure Internet infrastructure.
>
> In closing may I suggest you pick up Joy Berry's children's book about
> "Lying" and pass it out to your staff as required reading. It is an
> excellent book on the virtues of telling the truth - and it has many
> pretty pictures.
>
> Sincerely,
> Joe Baptista, Director
>
> encl: 1
>
> Subject:
> Statement on 'PCCF and the "BIND Survey"'
> Date:
> 3 Nov 1999 12:39:55 -0800
> From:
> "David R. Conrad" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Organization:
> none
> Newsgroups:
> comp.protocols.dns.bind
>
>
>
>
> [Apologies for duplicates -- having to do a bit of firefighting here]
>
> Hi,
>
> Recently, a group of individuals calling themselves the "Planet
> Communications &
> Computing Facility" (PCCF) sent mass unsolicited electronic mail to the
> point of
> contact e-mail address listed in the SOA records of (apparently) every
> zone they
> could reach claiming (in part):
>
> "We conduct and maintain the BIND (Berkley Internet Name Daemon)
> survey databases."
>
> and stating or inferring their Canadian-based organization (with a domain
> creation date of 1999 as documented in their whois record) has for "years"
> been
> "assisting the United States Government and the Department of Defense" in
> closing "security holes" in the DNS infrastructure.
>
> As a result of their mass unsolicited e-mail that implies an association
> with
> BIND, ISC has received numerous questions about PCCF, their motives,
> methods,
> and intentions. In addition, several individuals have lodged "spam"
> complaints
> and questioned whether ISC has taken part in, sponsored, or otherwise
> supports
> "the PCCF spam".
>
> For the record:
>
> - PCCF has _no_ relation whatsoever with ISC, we don't know who these
> people are, what they are trying to do, why they are trying to do
> it, or whether they can be trusted;
>
> - PCCF has _no_ connection with BIND other than (presumably) using
> BIND as their DNS server, they are not an ISC support customer or
> contributor, nor have we (to my knowledge) received any bug
> reports or other constructive information on DNS security from them;
>
> - the PCCF "survey" which purports to identify DNS vulnerabilities is
> _completely_ unrelated to the joint ISC / Network Wizard Domain
> Name survey which merely counts domains and has done so since 1991
> as a metric of Internet growth (see http://www.isc.org/survey.html
> for details);
>
> - ISC strongly agrees with the IAB statement regarding the necessity
> of a single domain name system root and disagrees with the PCCF
> political characterization of ICANN at the end of their mass
> mailing;
>
> - ISC does not support "spam" in anyway and we nominate spamming
> organizations to the RBL (see http://mail-abuse.org);
>
> and
>
> - BIND stands for "Berkeley Internet Name Domain" (according to the
> original authors) not "Berkley Internet Name Daemon".
>
> Any complaints, flames, etc. regarding the PCCF "survey" should be sent to
> Joe
> Baptista <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, NOT to the Internet Software Consortium.
>
> Speaking personally, while I think a survey of the security of domain name
> servers could be of value, I am highly skeptical of the claims PCCF has
> made and
> strongly suspect the individuals involved are merely using their "survey"
> as an
> attempt to justify spamming their position on ICANN to every SOA contact
> in the
> DNS for political reasons.
>
> Regards,
> -drc
> Executive Director, Internet Software Consortium
>
>
>
> --
> J. Baptista Planet Communications & Computing Facility
> Voice/Fax (212) 894-3704 ext. 1033
> http://www.pccf.net/
>
>
