Re: Events of Tuesday, 27 October 1998.

Dimitrios Kaloger wrote:

> Dear Madam,/Sir
>
> Mistakes are not improbable, however I can not condone your
> inadequate backup procedures. Its totally out of imagination that
> you may have rouinned the RIPE database. You have to keep yourself
> more dedicated to your work.

This cannot stand as is.

It is important to understand that the data in the RIPE database is
maintained by the users of the database, and not by the RIPE NCC
itself.  As was already said by the RIPE database administrator:

> We would like to stress that the RIPE NCC operates the RIPE Database,
> however the responsibility for managing user data lies with the users.

I suspect that the problem is that a backup cannot easily be used to
restore the current "desired" state (minus the unfortunate update).
The reason is that old NIC handles may have been recycled, i.e.
reassigned to another object, and that object can subsequently have
been referenced by an explicit use of that recycled NIC handle in an
update.  Sure, the subsequent updates could perhaps be doctored to
remedy this, but that is perhaps not easily or quickly done, and would
also mean "intervention in the data maintenance" by the RIPE NCC.

I would thus tend to turn the argument above on its head and say that
we collectively, the maintainers of the data in the RIPE database,
have made inadequate use of the already available methods for
protecting the data we maintain there from unauthorized updates or
removals.


Regards,

- Håvard