ARIN Launches WHOWAS: Trial Service Providing Historical Information for a Given IP Address

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ARIN Launches WHOWAS: Trial Service Providing Historical Information for a Given IP Address

	By Michele Neylon MD of Blacknight Solutions
	November 28, 2011 Views: 13,194 Comments: 1

American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is running a trial service that gives users access to historical IP whois data—that is, it will tell you who was responsible for an IP address or block of IPs.

The service is not automated and if you want to access it you will need to submit a request via email with information about not only what you want to know, but why you are interested in accessing the information.

The service could be useful for understanding an IP block’s reputation, assuming it has changed hands.

More information about the service on the ARIN site and the announcement here.

Thanks to Scott Pinzon (@spinzon) for bringing it to my attention.

By Michele Neylon, MD of Blacknight Solutions

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Comments

Historical data from a LEA point of view Wout de Natris – Nov 29, 2011 10:50 AM

Michele,

For law enforcement this is a very useful service. You may be surprised to find out how many of the now “Yogi Bear” registrations around the world were once registered to a Mr. X, address etc, given, who turns out to be the same as Yogi Bear. Many a spammer is only human and lazy. It’s these kind of mistakes that give LEAs a chance at getting them.

The conditions ARIN sets are proportionate. From a privacy point of view not just everyone should be able to read privacy sensitive data, a point OPTA’s chairman Chris Fonteijn (the Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority and spam/malware enforcer from The Netherlands) has brought in actively at the ICANN Whois debate in Marrakesh 2006.

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