Re: Accidental ARIN Reallocation

[David Conrad via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

Hank,

On Dec 14, 2025, at 9:48 PM, Hank Nussbacher via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org> wrote:
> A masterclass in owning a mistake and handling it properly.

“Owning”? Sure. "Handling it properly"? Time will tell.

The issue here is that RIRs were created to have precisely one job, namely to ensure the allocation of unique 
resources. Everything else is secondary. And ARIN failed at that one job.

It is, of course, true that mistakes (to put it politely) happen. People are fallible, bugs exist, systems crash, etc. 
What matters in the context of “core mission" is how much the organization's policies, processes, and priorities played 
in those mistakes. It appears updating systems to address “known weaknesses" was not prioritized, that internal 
processes were apparently not followed, and that policies were not in place to ensure ARIN could not fail in its core 
mission. Outside of the impact to the direct customers and a potential degradation in trust in ARIN’s service, there is 
a larger context: at a time when the RIR system as a whole is facing increased scrutiny due to governance concerns, 
changes in its operational role due to (and failures in) RPKI, threats from various actors, etc., this isn’t a good 
look.

ARIN has made a number of promises and presumably over time, there will be information about how it is living up to 
those promises. Hopefully, that information will show ARIN is "handling it properly”.

Regards,
-drc

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