On Fri, 26 Feb 1999, Dan Hollis wrote:
rfc2142 only deals with email addresses, what if the host is conducting a denial of service attack and you need to call someone. email addresses are rather less useful then. a quick whois and ring up is usually more effective in getting an attack shut down.
May I humbly suggest that we extend RFC2142 in the following fashion: All domain names should include a host named LDAP at which an LDAP server is operational which will answer queries for specific contact information for that domain. For example, if the domain name is example.com then the host named ldap.example.com would have a publicly accessible LDAP server available. The intent is for this server to make available up to date contact information for network operations people that deal with various types of emergency and non-emergency operational issues. An ongoing SMURF attack would be an example of an emergency issue whereas a peering request would be an example of a non-emergency issue. The contact information that is made available is intended only for use by operations people at other network providers. Because the servers are publicly accessible, the information may be shielded by suppling contact info for a "dispatch" person who acts as a gatekeeper for the real information. However this dispatcher must be able to promptly forward calls on a 24/7 basis in order to properly handle emergency issues. The LDAP server will make available the following objects: index security abuse peering smurf ... (and the list goes on) At a minimum, each emergency contact must contain an internationally accessible phone number including area/city codes and country code. And each non-emergency contact must include at least an email address. It is expected that man network operators will use a backend server that supports dynamic information so that contact info can be easily changed to reflect shift schedules, etc. P.S. This is pretty rough but I think you get the idea. Obviously it relies on having a working network connection to retrieve the information but because the info is published in a standard format, it wouldn't be too hard for some people (DRA?) to suck in copies from everyone with an AS number and make that available along with a few mirrors for robustness. -- Michael Dillon - E-mail: michael@memra.com Check the website for my Internet World articles - http://www.memra.com