In message <20190810003820.GD2592@jima.tpb.net>, Niels Bakker <niels=nanog@bakker.net> wrote:
* rfg@tristatelogic.com (Ronald F. Guilmette) [Sat 10 Aug 2019, 02:26 CEST]:
As far as I am aware, no RIR makes any effort whatsoever to vet changes to WHOIS records, either for IP blocks or ASNs or ORG records.
This is hilarious. You should hear the whining from any EU-based operator who has to implement the transfer of RIPE NCC resources in a corporate acquisition.
I recently was involved with one of those and the amount of due diligence required by the RIPE NCC was pretty intense. If I were at an RIR I'd be insulted by your claim of "no... effort whatsoever".
I do not and would not dispute that at least a few RIRs... in particular ARIN and RIPE... are -very- good and -very- diligent these days in their vetting of the legitimacy of what the RIRs themselves, and on their (secret) -internal- books list as "registrants" of number resources. But what is listed on the internal books of any given RIR is -not- what appears in the WHOIS records. It's just that simple. Your RIR may have given you a full rectal exam prior to giving you your IP addresses. But how does that help -me- if you're sending me bad packets and your WHOIS records says the following? Registrant: Salvador Dali Address: 12345 Moon St., The Universe, 999999999 Phone: <<Lindsey Graham's cell phone number>> Regards, rfg