[db-wg] running in whios-circles...?

>In message <CAKvLzuH7dhj6ti_RW_hqo61BOsXT_7iiihkVs9D_O0M-uPb9uQ at mail.gmail.com>
>denis walker <ripedenis at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Why don't you use the RIPE GRS service?

Although I have already listed most of the numerous reasons why I don't
use this service in my prior posting, I suppose that for the sake of
completeness I should also point out the following, which is an absolute
and irrefutable deal-breaker.

I don't just build tools for the sake of building tools.  I like coding,
but I have plenty else to do.  I build tools to achieve a goal.

I work on network abuse issues.  I have done so for about 20 years and I
continue to do so.  If I become aware of a situation, like the one I have
become aware of recently, wherein two different networks in the APNIC
region and one in the RIPE region have apparently taken up the rather
deplorable habit of hosting phishing web sites, I like to contact the
administrators of such networks and ask them why they are doing this and
if they plan to continue to do so.

When I say "contact" in this context, I generally mean either via email
or phone.

The specific tool that I have been talking about here recently allows me
to get the full *unredacted* WHOIS record for any given IP block, anywhere
on the planet.  Emphasis on "unredacted".  It is of very nearly -zero- use
to me to get the name of a company to which a given IP address block is
registered if I do not also get a contact email address and/or phone number
for the company in question.

A brief quote relating to the RIPE GRS Service:

  https://labs.ripe.net/author/denis/the-ripe-global-resource-service/

    "When we display any data we can obfuscate the data depending on the
    requirements of the data set owner and the European Data Protection
    directives. The data can be queried by any of the RIPE Database query
    methods:

        The Web Query form
        The RESTful API
        Command line queries.

    ..."

The bottom line is that GRS does not provide the information that either I or
anyone else who is combatting network abuse actually needs.  Instead, the
advice is given that in order to get this key information, the user should
resort to good old fashion port 43 queries, which is *exactly* what my tool
does.  (So maybe I'm not such a big dummy after all.)

I shall not debate the merits, or the lack thereof, of this european invention
called "GDPR".  I understand its noble intent and motivation.  That having
been said, it is distinctly *not* helpful to anyone who is ernestly and
proactively seeking to make the global Internet a better and safer place
for all, and not just by way of protecting end users from evil American
giant corporations and their voracious and generally sinister appetites for
unlimited quantities of data relating to natural persons.  That is quite
certainly not the only threat that end users face when they venture onto
the Internet.

I would however be more than happy to debate the now nearly universal and
atrociously misguided attempts by some to hobble otherwise useful sources
of contact information for entities that are quite evidentally *not*
natural persons, and the unambiguously negative effects this has on the
security and stability of the Internet globally, not to mention its clearly
destructive and deleterious effects upon the safety of billions of ordinary
Intetnet end users worldwide.  (Not that I would expect anyone on a mailing
list like this to give a rat's ass about any of those poor ordinary end
users or their routine and day-to-day victimizations at the hands of
professional cybercriminals.)


Regards,
rfg