Operators Penalized? (was Re: Kenyan Route Hijack)

Jeff Aitken jaitken at aitken.com
Mon Mar 17 13:08:07 UTC 2008


On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 03:48:07PM +0530, Glen Kent wrote:
> Do ISPs (PTA, AboveNet, etc) that "unintentionally" hijack someone
> else IP address space, ever get penalized in *any* form? 

Not usually.  I remember an incident (while working at AboveNet, ironically)
back in 98/99 where 701 "accidentally" announced some of our address
space.  The reason in that case was that a customer who had left 701 under
questionable circumstances signed up for service with us... and 701 wanted
to punish them.  It got at least as far as threats of legal action before
they stopped.  Not sure if anyone who has more details still reads this
list... rs, ser, or dlr might remember more; I don't know who was involved
on the uu side of things.


> So, is there anything that can be done to discourage such mishaps?

Capture data and sue for damages seems to be about the only recourse now.
Of course, that can be extremely difficult when you're talking about 
organizations on opposite sides of the planet, different jurisdictions, etc.

IMHO a better use of our time would be to solve the underlying technical
issue(s).  Whether it's soBGP, sBGP, or something else, we need to figure
out how to make one of these proposals work and get it implemented.  


--Jeff




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