[ncc-services-wg] Improved Secure Communication for Registration Services (RS) Mailboxes

Hi,

I'll have to agree with Måns; forcing X.509 handling and software
as the only option for securing e-mail with the registration
services mailboxes onto the LIR community is not something I see
as particularly welcome.

Today the LIRs have the option of securing communication with
auto-dbm using PGP.  This means that there is some deployment in
the LIR community for using PGP already.  Thus, I'm puzzled why
the option of continuing to use PGP with the registration
services mailboxes (hostmaster at ripe.net etc.) is not on the table
as options.  Yes, I can see there would be problems, but I have
not seen any discussion which makes it clear why these problems
are insurmountable (and I doubt they are).

I'll admit that I'm not familiar with usage of S/MIME in e-mail,
so I don't know how invasive usage of that is going to be.
However, it seems clear to me that if introduction of S/MIME and
X.509 will impose restrictions on what e-mail clients can be
used, one is intruding on an area where there may be emotional
reactions, and the proposal as it stands does not really address
those issues.

I'll concede, though, that on the WEB, it would seem that X.509
usage in the form of https is the only viable option, but then
again, that's not what we're discussing here, right?

Regards,

- Håvard