carsten@menandmice:~$ cat ~/ripe/ripejavik-day5.txt | blog-publishAs RIPE 78 came to a close, it was time to reflect and to forge plans for the future.
The last day of RIPE 78
In the final plenary session of RIPE 78, Theódór Gíslason from Icelandic security company Syndis, talked about current threats on the Internet and that many users underestimate the security issues. He underpinned this statement with some examples of how attackers can find detailed information on the victim through public information like commits on Github or Facebook, and that data breaches are getting more and bigger.
One could say that most of the information in the presentation wasn't new to the RIPE audience, and Theódór Gíslason was somewhat surprised when he asked the audience who is using Facebook and only a few hands went up. The RIPE audience is a special case.
Later on, it was Roland van Rijswijk-Deij’s turn again to take the stage. Today he was reporting on historical data on RPKI, the Resource Public Key Infrastructure securing the Internet’s routing system. The RIPE NCC has archived historical RPKI repositories and Roland used the "Routinator" tool to analyze how RPKI usage has changed over time. For example, he found that the average prefix size in RPKI is decreasing over time for both IPv4 and IPv6.
Richard Nelson from the Faucet Foundation presented on the open source OpenFlow controller with the name "Faucet". Faucet is targeted at enterprises that want to move router and switch management away from closed network equipment vendors into OpenFlow Hardware/Software. Richard reported on their real world implementation of the Faucet system at the Super-Computer Conference 2018 in Dallas, TX.
Before RIPE Chair Hans Petter Holen officially closed RIPE 78, there was a challenging online quiz titled "Are you up to the Level of RIPE 78?" which was organized by Fernando Garcia. RIPE meetings are often exhausting, quite challenging, but also lots of fun!
A final note
RIPE 78 was the second largest RIPE meeting ever, and for me personally it was one of the best RIPE meetings I've attended. It had great presentations, a good location (Hotel Nordica) and food and very nice weather in Reykjavik. I have been told this has been one of the warmest weeks in May for years. Must’ve been the hot topics at RIPE 78.
And then there was the "Group of Secrets" (aka Secret Working Group), but the report from that group is a secret and I'm not allowed to tell you anything about it. If you want to know what is going on in that Working Group, you will have to come in person to RIPE 79 in October in Rotterdam, NL. See you there!
A note from the editors: RIPE-javik may be over, but not done
Thus concludes our RIPE 78 coverage, but not our investigation of issues raised or following up on conversation started.
In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be returning to these topics frequently. We’ll deep-dive into issues on the blog, and we’re also preparing a podcast series, starting with interviews (conducted by Carsten) with prominent speakers and attendees at RIPE.
We’ve learned a ton this past week. But we’re also interested to hear your feedback: what did you find the most interesting? What new development are you the most excited for? We’re listening!
