reporting dictionary attacks

[Dawes, Stephen]

The big problem with open / free black lists is that they are not kept
current. Once an IP address is added to them they never remove it. Now
it can be argued that this is a good thing, but in actuality is not.
With more and more ISP's serving dynamic IP addresses, you can get an IP
address that is black listed, and you are not the one responsible for
creating the problem. Additionally, as ISP's come and go, or are bought
up by bigger companies, the IP assigned IP address block also changes
hands. Again, the black lists do not get updated with this information.
Black lists could have been a good thing if the world did not introduce
dynamic IP addressing. Static IP addresses would have made it a lot
easier to implement black lists. That being said, regardless of how IP
addresses are assigned, I think that black list providers also need to
be responsible and keep their information current. My personal thinking
is that the entire black list implementation needs to be rethought.
Perhaps, instead of using the IP address as the entry into the black
list, they need to start looking at using the domain name instead. At
least this approach would account for dynamic IP addressing and for the
ownership of IP address blocks changing hands.

I speak from personal experience, having being assigned a dynamic IP
address from my ISP that is on a black list. What is frustrating about
this is that the ISP will not provide a different IP address. 

Steve Dawes
Phone: (403) 268-5527
Email: SDawes at calgary.ca


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