Dear colleagues,
One of the goals of the RIPE NCC is to simplify and streamline our infrastructure and internal processes. Over the years, we have taken great strides in making our infrastructure easier to maintain and more cost effective. However, there are a couple of legacy scripts and tools that are entangled deeply in our workflows and are very hard to phase out on the short term.
One of these legacy tools is our ticketing system. The infrastructure we need and the resources it costs is disproportionate to the amount of value that it offers. Migrating away from it in one go is proving to be very complicated. This is why we have decided on a phased approach. One element of the ticketing system that will be affected in the first phase is PGP Authentication:
https://www.ripe.net/lir-services/resource-management/contact/pgp-authentication
Signing emails from hostmaster@ripe.net, lir-help@ripe.net, new-lir@ripe.net and enum@ripe.net is one of the first pieces that we need to remove in order to phase out all the legacy software. While we realise that it is a best practice to sign such emails and are aware of the value it offers, we are planning to discontinue email signing from just these addresses starting 1 January 2014. It will allow us to phase out a part of our infrastructure that makes future migration a lot easier, while saving cost in the mean time.
Please note that this change will not affect email interaction with the RIPE Database. As soon as we have replaced our current ticketing system, we will re-evaluate email signing. As we may have overlooked some potential issues that certain members of our Community might have if we discontinue this functionality, naturally we are open to your feedback.
Kind regards,
Alex Band
Product Manager
RIPE NCC