NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Site enables automated flagging of "anonymously"registered domains
First, while Eric's wording in that interview was rather non-optimal and provided a convenient hook for the Google conspiracy crowd to crow about, the reality is that in the full context of the interview it was clear that he was talking about illicit behavior. If you're a 14-year- old who regularly gets drunk, or someone of any age who snorts coke, perhaps it's not a great idea to post pictures of your activities on Facebook pages where anyone can find them. As for anonymous/masked domains, I've written extensively on this since day one and found my predictions for abuse of anon domain registrations coming true all the way down the line. Using a domain name is like a fictitious name statement or DBA. And whether or not you're doing business under a domain name, you are creating a public presence, and just as with a DBA you should still be easily contacted and held responsible for what you do with that name. You don't *have* to possess your own domain name to use the Internet! As far as I'm concerned it's a privilege, not a right. We all know that masked, anon domains are the favored tools of the spammers, phishers, botnet operators, and other crooks. But even when assigned to honest folks, they create the potential for terrible network management problems, and I've personally had to help people deal with dozens of these. The typical case is when something goes wrong (accidentally) at a site and a misconfiguration causes floods of mail or other data toward innocent parties. If the domain owner can be quickly reached such problems are usually of the "Oops, I'll fix that right away! Thanks!" variety. But for anonymous domains, the contact routes usually involve significant delays (typically no way to call on the phone, which is often the best avenue in these situations) and often don't work at all. And just *try* contact the postmaster or other technical contact listed for those anonymous domains. Nine times out of ten they won't even talk to you -- saying that they will only communicate directly with *their own customers* or similar delaying tactics. For more than several cases of DDoS attacks that were brought to me by desperate users, I had to call the Office of the President of major ISPs before anyone would pay attention to fixing the problems. To use the vernacular, these kinds of situations happening over and over again really pisses me off. The situation is unacceptable and crazy. Internet infrastructure is not a toy that can safely be warped into a secret society of hidden networks and names for the profits of registrars. I hope that in the course of deliberations about "cybersecurity" threats, the risks and abuses of anonymous/masked domain registrations will be fully considered. --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator - - - On 03/02 21:01, Michael Turk wrote: > That sounds very much like Eric Schmidt's "if you don't want people > knowing what you're doing, maybe you shouldn't be doing it." > > I find interesting the presumption of "guilty until proven innocent" > that is inherent in such a broad generalization of reasons people > would choose anonymity. > > ------Original Message------ > From: Lauren Weinstein > Sender: nnsquad-bounces+turk=kungfuquip.com@nnsquad.org > To: nnsquad@nnsquad.org > Subject: [ NNSquad ] Site enables automated flagging of "anonymously"registered domains > Sent: Mar 2, 2010 3:51 PM > > > Site enables automated flagging of "anonymously" registered domains > > http://bit.ly/aD1Vtz (SpamResource) > > This is an excellent idea. "Masked" domain registrations have become > the favored tool of all manner of crooks, and a heavily pushed profit > center by many registrars. While I realize that not all anonymous > domains are being used for illicit purposes, they also make it much > harder to reach responsible parties in cases of network problems > (intentional or not) and are (in my opinion) significantly > contributing to destabilization of the Net overall. > > I realize that many persons disagree with me about this, but as far as > I'm concerned if you want your public presence to be a domain name, > you should be willing to admit who you really are and have accurate > contact information immediately available. Does this attract some > spam and other problems? Yeah. But get over it. If you're that > scared of spam -- or revealing your physical contact info -- don't get > a domain name -- use an address under an ISP or other service and > leave the domains to the people willing to stand up, be counted, and > use them responsibly in a public context. > > --Lauren-- > NNSquad Moderator > >