NOTICE: mass-media event expected Sep 11, 1998

Thu Sep 10 23:03:10 UTC 1998

DRA Net is the Internet Service Provider for the Library of Congress.
It is expected the Library's web server(s) will be the primary distribution
point for the Office of Independent Counsel report to the House of
Representatives.  The exact time and and place has not been announced.

A sudden large traffic surge is expected report is released.  DRA Net
has provisioned additional bandwidth, servers and working on other traffic
management plans to handle the increased network load.  While interest
in the report is expected to be high, we don't currently know how much
traffic will be generated.  The short time period given to prepare means
some very good ideas for handling the traffic may not be in place in time.
I'm acutely aware that attempts to hurriedly implement other options tend
to create other problems.  DRA appreciates the several offers of assistance
we have received.

DRA has begun receiving many inquiries from the public news media. Other
network providers, when calling the DRA service desk about a major network
problem be prepared to identify yourself and your AS number immediately
so we can handle your call properly.  I request during the next few days
ONLY senior network engineers attempt to call our direct network operations
center phone numbers.  This contact information has been previous supplied
by DRA to each network peering with DRA Net.

To avoid problems with "social engineering" DRA reserves the right to
screen and implement additional security procedures to verify the
authenticity of any callers.  Violations of the Computer Fraud and
Abuse Act and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act
will be referred to appropriate law enforcement authorities.

If you peer with DRA Net, and have not previously provided a callback
number for your NOC, you may send it to peering at dra.net.  Please verify
BGP peering and routing this evening, access-lists are in place so you
will not be able to traceroute into the LOC network, and send a message
to peering at dra.net if they are incorrect.  No new BGP sessions will be
setup or changed after 6am Central Time September 11, 1998.

Public and media inquiries concerning the report should be directed to
the House of Representatives and Library of Congress Public Affairs
offices.  All decisions controlling the release of the report is
determined SOLELY by the United States House of Representatives' rules.

DRA can NOT provide information about the report's contents.  DRA's media
contact is Joe Bonwich, 314-432-1100, joe at dra.com during normal business
hours.
-- 
Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO