Minutes of the 2020-08-26 IAB Teleconference

1. Administrivia

1.1. Attendance

Present:

• Jari Arkko
• Ben Campbell
• Alissa Cooper (IETF Chair)
• Stephen Farrell
• Wes Hardaker
• Cullen Jennings
• Mirja Kühlewind (IAB Chair)
• Zhenbin Li
• Jared Mauch
• Cindy Morgan (IAB Executive Administrative Manager)
• Mark Nottingham
• Karen O’Donoghue (ISOC Liaison)
• Tommy Pauly
• Colin Perkins (IRTF Chair)
• Jeff Tantsura
• Amy Vezza (IETF Secretariat)
• Jiankang Yao

Regrets:

• Alvaro Retana (IESG Liaison)

Guests:

• Ryan Polk
• Jeff Wilbur

Observers:

• Greg Wood

1.2. Agenda bash & announcements

The IAB planned to add an agenda item to discuss the recent mailing list conversations on the IETF discussion list, but ended up deciding to move that conversation to email due to time constraints.

1.3. Meeting Minutes

The following meeting minutes were approved:

• 2020-08-12 business meeting – (draft submitted 2020-08-12)

2. Briefing on ISOC encryption project

Ryan Polk and Jeff Wilbur briefed the IAB on the Internet Society’s current encryption project.

Jeff Wilbur explained that encryption is a critical tool for the security of people, information and the Internet’s infrastructure. The Internet Society is working with partners globally to support the use of strong encryption and prevent dangerous attempts to weaken its effectiveness or prevent its implementation.

Encryption is the process of scrambling or enciphering data so it can be read only by someone with the means to return it (decrypt) to its original state. It makes data secure.

End-to-end (E2E) encryption is any form of encryption for data-in-transit in which only the sender and intended recipient (so not even the provider) can read the message. Nearly everyone and every sector relies on encryption, and many on end-to-end encryption, whether they know it or not.

Ryan Polk noted that the threats to encryption have evolved over the years. Initially, governments wanted backdoors or exceptional access to encrypted data; now the focus is on traceability and “just give us the data.” The rationale for these threats has also changed, from combating terrorism and drug cartels to fighting child exploitation, misinformation, and hate speech.

The danger with backdoors is that no matter the method, there is no such thing as secure “exceptional” access. Criminals can and will discover and use the same way to get in. It is effectively a vulnerability designed into the system, which undermines the security and trust of the affected systems.

The Internet Society encryption project is targeting several countries/regions where they see the biggest threats to encryption. The campaign approach has four pillars:

1. Thought Leadership
   • Position ISOC as credible, unbiased and expert resources and
     content for target audiences
2. Building a Movement
   • Recruit supporters – ISOC community, partners, civil society,
     coalitions
   • Link to ISOC engagement goals
3. Raising New Heroes
   • Identify and equip champions to carry the message
4. Mobilization & Advocacy
   • Collaborating with and empowering community (chapters, partners,
     coalitions) to create change

The Internet Society’s encryption project is looking to shift towards practice advice, before threats appear. They hope to build self-mobilizing local advocacy communities, and are considering a Global Encryption Day in 2021.

3. Action item review

Done/OBE:

• 2020-08-12: Jared Mauch to follow up with the chosen RZERC candidate.
• 2020-08-12: Cindy Morgan to follow up with the RZERC candidates who were not chosen, then send an announcement.
• 2020-08-12: Cindy Morgan and Tommy Pauly to get the EDM Program pages set up on the IAB website and Datatracker, and announce the Program to the architecture-discuss list.
• 2020-08-12: Mark Nottingham to draft a response to the appeal from Timothy McSweeney and send it to the appeals list for review.
• 2020-07-15: Jari Arkko to follow up with Mat Ford and Andrei Robachevsky regarding the EU Multi Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardisation.

In Progress:

• 2020-06-01: Stephen Farrell (with Colin Perkins and Mirja Kühlewind) to revise the proposal about refactoring IAB Programs based on the retreat discussion.
• 2020-06-03: Stephen Farrell and Colin Perkins to schedule a tech chat on contact tracing apps and permissionless innovation. (Note: Check back in on this at the 2020-08-26 meeting.)
• 2020-06-05: Tommy Pauly to find a speaker and schedule a tech chat on safe browsing. (Note: Check back in on this at the 2020-9-23 meeting.)
• 2020-08-12: Jari Arkko (with Wes Hardaker) to start a re-write of draft-arkko-arch-infrastructure-centralisation and post it on Github.
• 2020-08-12: Jari Arkko to write a blog post on the COVID-19 Network Impacts Workshop.

New:

• 2020-08-26: Cindy Morgan to post the IAB’s response to the appeal from Timothy McSweeney.
• 2020-08-26: Wes Hardaker to send the IAB’s response to Timothy McSweeney’s appeal via email.

4. Evolvability, Deployability, & Maintainability (EDM) Program

Cindy Morgan reported that the EDM Program web pages have been set up, and that the Program was announced on the architecture-discuss list.

5. IAB Programs

Mirja Kühlewind asked the IAB to review the material about refactoring IAB Programs that is in the IAB GitHub. The subgroup working on this will try to schedule a side meeting for further discussions sometime in the next two weeks.

6. COVID-19 Network Impacts Workshop

Jari Arkko drafted a blog post about the COVID-19 Network Impacts Workshop; he asked the IAB to review the text and send comments via email.

7. Appeal from Timothy McSweeney

The IAB approved their response to the appeal from Timothy McSweeney. Cindy Morgan will post the appeal response on the IAB website, and Wes Hardaker will send the appeal response via email.

Alissa Cooper and Mirja Kühlewind were recused from the discussions and decision about this appeal.

8. Next IAB Meeting

The next IAB meeting will be on 2020-09-09 at 1330 UTC.