1. Improving APNIC whois
data quality
Dinesh Bakthavatchalam
dinesh@apnic.net

2. Overview
• Whois database, it’s quality and it’s users
• Discussions with the community and stakeholders
• APNIC’s initiatives
• Future plans
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3. APNIC Whois Database
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4. Who will benefit
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APNIC Whois
APNIC and NIR
Members
End Users
Law
Enforcement
Agencies
CERT
Community
Research
organizations
Geolocation
providers
Governments

5. Comments from the community at
APNIC 41
• POC (Point of Contact) validation system
• Distinction between APNIC data and customer assignments
by tagging
• Attestation of validated data, similar to a reputation system
• Other RIRs have faced similar issues
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6. LEA stakeholders enter the whois
discussion at APNIC 42
• Coalition of LEA communities presented their views
• Community engaged with LEAs
• Possible policy proposal in the future
APNIC’s engagement with LEAs
• 14 regional security engagements
• 13 network security related training courses
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7. APNIC’s initiatives
• Improving IRT contacts
• Removing ‘orphan’ objects
• Improve invalid contact reporting
• Establishing whois guidelines
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8. Recent changes to whois
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9. Organization object
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organization: ORG-APNIC1-AP
org-name: Asia Pacific Network Information
Centre
descr: Regional Internet Registry
country: AU
address: 6 Cordelia Street, South Brisbane
phone: +61 7 3858 3100
fax-no: +61 7 3858 3199
e-mail: helpdesk@apnic.net
mnt-ref: APNIC-HM
notify: helpdesk@apnic.net
mnt-by: APNIC-HM
last-modified: 20170530T13:27:32Z
source: APNIC
• New object type in the
APNIC whois database
• Contains information about
an organization that has
been delegated IP address
space or AS numbers
• Easy way of mapping
delegated IP addresses or
AS numbers to the
organizations that have
received them

10. Query to find all resources of an
organization
Organization
IPv4
ASNIPv6
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whois.apnic.net -i org <Unique org ID> -T inetnum, inet6num, aut-num

11. How are the organization objects
created?
• New APNIC accounts – when resources get delegated
• Existing APNIC accounts – MyAPNIC
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12. Where are we?
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APNIC Members BD Members
35%
26%
74%
Members that have updated their organization information
Members that have not updated their organization information
65%

13. Last-modified attribute
• What is the “last-modified:” attribute?
– A new attribute replacing the existing “changed:” attribute
– Stores the time when the whois object was last updated - the value is
set by the server when an update occurs
• Why use “last-modified:”?
– For accuracy of date and time stamp when changes are
made for an individual record in the whois database
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14. Last-modified attribute
• This update happens in phases (phase 1 and phase 2)
• After phase 2 objects with changed attribute are rejected
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15. Some future improvements
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16. • Merging existing features in different pages of MyAPNIC
• Cleaner interface showing only the required updates
• Annual contact review reminder
• Update progress indicator
Features to manage whois contacts
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17. Benefits of the new features
• Does not require in-depth whois
knowledge
• Update account and whois contacts
at the same time
• A prominent message on MyAPNIC
landing page with update progress
indicator
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18. How can you help?
• Log into MyAPNIC and update your organization details for
the organization object
• Review your whois objects and their contact details
• Get involved with the community and the discussions
WE WILL HAVE AN ACCURATE WHOIS DATABASE!!!!
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19. Questions/feedback?
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