Re: Notes from Non-meeting

On Wed, Mar 20, 2002 at 07:15:22AM -0600, Randy Bush wrote:
> > It would facilitate further discussion if participants tried
> > to keep these concepts separated. Surely they are inter-related,
> > but we can discuss them separately. I'd request that we try hard
> > to do that. So, for example, you can talk about needing to know
> > whom you are disclosing location information to, but it may or
> > may not include cryptographic authentication (and in fact
> > in some cases there would NOT be any form of cryptographic
> > authentication, for example, with emergency calls).
>
> i thought that the 911 call centers were quite interested in being
> able to know the phone number which called the service.

Firstly, let me say that I like Brian's seperation of issues; I think
it will help us move forward.

I think it is important to check the authorization of the emergency
service to demand location information; authenticating the number less
so. Checking the authorization of an emergency service is important
because if we don't, it becomes possible for a script kiddie to
override all the privacy policies by sending a "I'm an emergency
center, please respond with your location" message.

Authorization may be as simple as "You dialed 911; privacy is now
off." The question becomes more complex if you dial another emergency
service, say, a suicide support line. We may wish to punt on that, as
it's really hard.

Authenticating the number is less important because firstly, it may
not matter: someone called 911 and needs emergency help at this
location. Secondly, it may not be available. In some jurisdictions,
an otherwise non-functional mobile phone can be used to call emergency
services numbers. Thirdly, if caller id breaks, emergency service
should not. So, if we're going to authenticate the calling number,
and that authentication ever fails, we have two choices. We can cut
off the call (which I think is a bad idea), or we can accept it
without authentication. If we accept it with an authentication
failure, why bother trying to authenticate?

Adam
Received on Wed Mar 20 10:30:32 2002