W dniu 15.03.2022 o 11:40, ivaylo pisze:
Dear colleagues,
Propaganda is all around us (in all mass media from all countries, in soccial medias, etc.), we do not need to carry it here. The main task of RIPE is to maintain the allocation of resources for the functioning of the Internet in the region.
Indeed, however Putin's plans to isolate Russia network from the rest of the world in a way similar to NK or PRC are a fact. At this point of time the measures in place are quite primitive - banning all foreign DNS servers and forcing Russian users to use Russian (government-controlled) DNS only. Something similar was, sadly, implemented in Poland in all of places supposedly to stop the internet gambling problem, but because one has only to use global DNS servers instead of local to circumvent that it is just a "security theater" (government pretending they are doing "something" to solve a "problem") - albeit a bit unnerving to be honest.
The main task of the Internet is to give every user access to information. Screening, restricting, banning people's access to information (internet) will not in any way resolve the world's military conflicts, nor will it lead to peace. On the contrary, it will only deepen differences in people's thinking and boost propaganda that is not in the interests of societies around the world.
Oh, I completely agree with that. However the problem is that the measures Putin is implementing could make that free access to information impossible in practice anyway while at the same time keeping us vulnerable to attacks by his military hackers - which can hinder or even prevent access to information and services here outside Russia too. I'm sure You've probably seen the increase of brute-force hack attacks from all over the world - and I am wondering how many of those originate from Russia (or China) and are just using overseas proxies/VPNs/clouds to mask the origin of the attack. Physically cutting Russia would stop that, obviously, but I am worried - as You are - about the cost of such a drastic measure. It is not about politics - it is about ensuring network availability. Is keeping Russia connected putting us in danger of even wider network failure? I would call it "House's leg dilemma" (if You've seen House MD you'll get what I mean) So my question is what would be the best (or least worse) course of action in that situation... I am leaning toward prioritizing maintaining free access to information, obviously, but I am also concerned about our security. Especially since I know how woefully inadequate IT support is in plenty of even big corporations due to stupid cost cutting (see: Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack; that should not have happened! even my smallest systems have separate RDIFF backup system that is inaccessible to any user and is cut off from the internet so when I had a ransomware attack few years back due to a privileged user being careless it was just a trivial issue of restoring backups from last evening - at most a day's work lost, no biggie, and as a bonus I got to dish out a lot of "I told you so" and suddenly there was money for a real antivirus packet and I was able to finally push some additional security measures). There are big professional customers who call about internet failure when in fact the cause was power failure on their site - I shudder to think how inadequate their network security might be if that is the level of their competence.
I support the idea of a RIPE program for financial assistance to Ukranian LIRs badly affected by the military conflict there, but only after the preparation, voting and adoption of clearly set and regulated conditions in RIPE documents and contracts that can be used in the future similar situations. Otherwise, and hasty action, there is a risk of setting a precedent that could be used in the future by unscrupulous members. That is true.
-- tel. 500 206 0268 DAWIS IT Sp. z o.o. z siedzibą w Pruszkowie Adres: ul. Staszica 1, 05-800 Pruszków KRS 0000319237 I NIP 5342409456 I REGON 141663620