RIPE NCC Report: Law Enforcement Agency Requests 2014

The RIPE NCC receives information requests from Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) and tries to facilitate the provision of any required publicly available information. The RIPE NCC does not provide any confidential or private information to LEAs without a court order or other legally enforceable order or request under Dutch law.

In 2014, the RIPE NCC received seven information requests from LEAs. None of these requests were accompanied by a Dutch court order; four were accompanied by non-Dutch subpoenas (these requests are detailed below). In comparison with the previous years, we observed a decrease in the number of requests as well a change in the quality of these requests. LEAs now appear to understand the RIPE NCC's role as a Regional Internet Registry, the information it possesses and what it will and will not share. LEAs also seem to acknowledge the RIPE NCC's procedures and will try to confirm with the RIPE NCC before making an official request.

In 2014, the RIPE NCC received the following requests:

• Five requests for the identification of Internet users at a particular moment in time. In response, the RIPE NCC provided information on its role as an RIR and explained how to use publicly available information in the RIPE Database to find the party responsible for a particular resource.
• One request for a written confirmation regarding the distribution of specific Internet number resources by the RIPE NCC to specific legal entities, as this information appeared in the RIPE Database. The RIPE NCC provided this confirmation.
• One request asking if the RIPE NCC could share non-public information about organisations responsible for Internet number resources. This question was about the RIPE NCC's procedures in general, rather than any specific case. In response, the RIPE NCC explained that non-public information could only be provided with a Dutch order.