RIPE NCC Resource Certification Service Launch

The RIPE NCC is proud to announce the production launch of the RIPE NCC resource certification service.

With the support of the RIPE community, we have worked very hard to create a service that will help to make our registry more robust and provide a vital element in making Internet routing more secure. Now, more than ever, it is important to be sure who is the legitimate holder of a block of IP addresses.

As a first step, the RIPE NCC (in coordination with the other four RIRs) has created a hosted platform. This means that all LIRs will be able to generate a certificate of holdership that will be held in a repository maintained by the RIPE NCC. The feature set is, as it stands, very limited: the certificate will only cover Provider Aggregatable address space, and it is not yet possible to run your own Certificate Authority or generate "child" certificates to create a chain of trust. All of these capabilities will be rolled out over the course of 2011, based on the wishes and input of the RIPE community.

While the technology is now in place, the policy describing the details of the certification system has not yet passed the RIPE Policy Development Process. We have decided, however, to launch the system with the most limited feature set possible, so that the membership can try it out. Our hope is that this will make resource certification more tangible, and assist the community in making an informed decision about what the system should offer, now and in the future. We invite and encourage you to discuss this on the RIPE NCC Services Working Group mailing list.

Ongoing development of the RIPE NCC certification service will, of course, be planned in accordance with the certification policy that is agreed on by the RIPE community.