[sig-db]prop-010-v001 database protection project update

[Sanjaya <sanjaya@apnic.net>]

Dear colleagues

At APNIC 16, there was consensus for the APNIC Secretariat to increase 
the level of protection of database objects in the APNIC Whois  database.

Therefore, from today, the APNIC Secretariat has deprecated the use of 
NONE as an authentication attribute. Any maintainer objects that were 
previously registered as "auth: NONE" have now been updated to be 
protected by CRYPT-PW password authentication.

From today, the APNIC whois database will only accept authenticated 
updates using the following methods:
  -  CRYPT-PW,
  -  MD5-PW, and
  -  PGP-KEY.

Also, the APNIC Secretariat has added password protection to MAINT-NULL 
 (the maintainer that was created for migration purposes, which was not 
 previously password protected).

The proposal to increase database protection is available at:

    http://www.apnic.net/docs/policy/proposals/prop-010-v001.html


More details of these authentication options are available at:

   http://www.apnic.net/db/ref/attributes/mntner/auth-mntner.html


Finally, the APNIC secretariat is also evaluating the use of X.509 
certificate (as used in the MyAPNIC system) to authenticate whois 
database updates, a feature recently introduced to the RIPE community. 
Background information to this development is available at:

    http://www.ripe.net/db/newsflash-20040325.html


Thank you,
Sanjaya
______________________________________________________________________
Sr Project Manager                                 <sanjaya@apnic.net>
Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC)   Tel: +61-7-3858-3100
PO Box 2131 Milton, QLD 4064 Australia            Fax: +61-7-3858-3199

      *** See you at APNIC-19 in Fiji, 31 Aug - 3 Sep 2004 ***
______________________________________________________________________