1.) Incentive:

This proposal specifies a dedicated object which shall be used as the preferred place to publish abuse public contact information within the AfriNIC service region.

The mentioned object can be referenced in the inetnum, inet6num and aut-num objects in the AfriNIC Whois Database. It provides a more accurate and efficient way for abuse reports to reach the correct network contact.

2.) Summary of current problem:

Network owners increasingly operate dedicated abuse handling departments, distinct from the basic operations department.

More and more network owners and other institutions are also starting to exchange data about abusive behavior with each other, to more quickly allow networks to identify internal abuse, external abuse, and other security problems.

Currently within the AfriNIC service region, the abuse reports are sent to e-mail address specified in the e-mail field, as encouraged on the AfriNIC website.[1] These addresses are used because the AfriNIC Whois Database currently has no specialised contact object for abuse departments. Instead, all abuse reports are sent to contact that is has broader responsibilities or different responsibilities.

3.) Situation in other RIRs:

APNIC:

APNIC found consensus on introducing a mandatory IRT Object for all inet(6)nums and aut-nums at APNIC 29 in Kuala Lumpur March 4th 2010. Further information about the APNIC policy proposal can be found at [2]

ARIN:

An abuse-POC exists for Organizational ID identifiers.[3]

LACNIC:

An abuse-c exists for aut-num, inetnum and inet6num objects.[4]

RIPE:

An optional IRT (Incident Response Team) object can be linked to inetnum and inet6num objects.[5]

4.) Details of the proposal:

It is proposed that the AfriNIC create a new or uses an already existing object, which implements the following properties:

(a) A unique reference by inetnum, inet6num and aut-num

(b) Contains 2 email attributes:

(i) "e-mail:" for personal communication

(ii) "abuse-mailbox:" for automatic report handling

The object should be accessible through Whois. AfriNIC publishes a Best Practice Paper and informs all their members actively to encourage them to use the object to publish abuse contact information.

5.) Advantages and disadvantages of the proposal:

5.1 Advantages

• Networks will be able to supply their own, direct contact information for abuse departments.
• Abuse complaints will not be sent to the "wrong" contact any more.
• This permits greater administrative and operational flexibility, and faster abuse handling will be possible.

5.1 Disadvantages

This object, like all other existing objects, will face the data accuracy problem. This proposal aims to address the issue of a missing place for abuse contact information and will not improve data accuracy in the whois database. Nevertheless it is suggested to AfriNIC to offer a way to receive reports about not working or not accurate objects. But this is part of another proposal.

6.) Effect on AfriNIC members:

There will be no immediate impact. The only effect is the opportunity to publish a dedicated abuse contact object and benefit by the advantages.

7.) References:

1. Finding contacts for an IP address http://www.afrinic.net/Registration/spam.htm
2. prop-079: Abuse contact information http://www.apnic.net/policy/proposals/prop-079
3. Introduction to ARIN's Database https://www.arin.net/knowledge/database.html#abusepoc
4. There is no formal documentation on abuse-c in inetnum and inet6num objects, but for documentation on the abuse-c in ASN records, see LACNIC Policy Manual (v1.3 - 07/11/2009) http://lacnic.net/en/politicas/manual4.html
5. RIPE Abuse Finder Database http://labs.ripe.net/Members/Paul_P_/content-abuse-finder