Renesys Blog Article [Was: Re: the Intercage mess]

Mon Sep 29 08:40:01 UTC 2008

> It is not vigilantism, it is the common law, rooted in 
> ancient English history, of the "shire reeve", who we now 
> call the "sheriff".

Reeve means "called", from the Germanic verb "rufen".
In other words, this person is someone who is called
to the duty by the shire. The point that has been
raised about vigilantism is that the people taking
action have not been appointed by the community and
therefore are not answerable to the community, nor are
there actions controllable in any way by the community.

> The original duty of the shire reeve, among other things, was 
> that he was 1 man out of every 10 households, whose duty it 
> was to check the locks and gates of each house and barn, 
> before himself retiring for the night.

In other words, this person checked the property of his
peers. He was one of the community which selected him.

> Each of the smaller networks connected to the larger 
> Internet, has someone whose job it is to be sure that the 
> "locks and gates" are shut.

And those network security people generally don't hang out
on NANOG. Instead they hang out in various security forums
like MAAWG etc.

--Michael Dillon