[db-wg] [ncc-services-wg] Blocking Access to Personal Data Objects in the RIPE Database

On 27 May 2014, at 14:33, Wilfried Woeber <Woeber at CC.UniVie.ac.at> wrote:

> Janos Zsako wrote:
> 
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> In short, yes, I support the proposal.
> 
> Same here. I also, in principle, like the more general idea as outlined below.
> Although I'd leave it to the NCC to think about and to apply DoS protection. :-)
> 

I am in full agreement with Wilfried’s comment, supporting the modified limitation to personal data access, and let the operator deal with operational issues

Joao

> Wilfried.
> 
>> My slightly modified suggestion is:
>> 
>> When a given IP address, due to the large number of personal data queries
>> reaches the limit where the NCC would now deny access to any objects, I
>> think
>> it would make sense to fully limit the access to personal data (i.e deny
>> access to it), however, limit the access to other data as if they had been
>> using the --no-personal flag so far.
>> 
>> As long as there is no other kind of limitations than the one based on
>> the number of personal data retrieved[*], this boils down to the
>> suggestion below.
>> If at some point other limitations are put in place, like number of queries
>> within a time frame (to mitigate DoS attacks), then this would mean that
>> they
>> are still eligible for limitation if their query rate is too high (this
>> time
>> not due to the personal data involved).
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> Janos
>> 
>> [*] See RIPE DB AUP
>> (http://www.ripe.net/data-tools/support/documentation/aup).
>> 
>>> At RIPE 68, we again raised the issue of how the blocking mechanism
>>> works in the RIPE Database. Currently it is all or nothing — if a user
>>> queries for too much personal data, we block their access to everything.
>>> 
>>> We often find that this causes issues for legitimate users of the
>>> database. This is a recent example of the requests our Customer
>>> Services department receives:
>>> 
>>> "This is the outgoing NAT IP for a vast shared hosting cluster. We
>>> can't control the type of queries our customers run, there are over
>>> 250,000 websites, a tiny fraction might use RIPE but those customers
>>> are using RIPE database for a good reason and need to be able to query
>>> it. This is why I'm asking for a blanket allow.”
>>> 
>>> Clearly we cannot whitelist any IP address for unlimited access to
>>> personal data. However, the option to only block access to personal
>>> data objects when the limit is reached would be a great help in these
>>> situations.
>>> 
>>> No decision has been made on this issue. We are hoping that it can be
>>> further discussed by the community to see if a consensus can be reached.
>>> 
>>> Regards
>>> 
>>> Denis Walker
>>> Business Analyst
>>> RIPE NCC Database Team
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
> 
> 

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