LACNIC 32 LACNOG 2019: Activity Recap

18/10/2019

More than 500 participants attended the LACNIC 32 LACNOG 2019 event held from 7 to 11 October at the Hard Rock Hotel in Panama City.

The Second LACNIC Hackathon took place in the runup to the event. There, participants worked on four different LACNIC projects: the MiLACNIC API, the UpDown for the Resource Certification System (RPKI), LACNIC’s Internet Routing Registry (IRR) and the organization’s events system. Additional details and a summary of what took place at the Hackathon are available here.

The event’s opening ceremony was led by Luis Oliva of AIG, Ricardo Patara of LACNOG, and Wardner Maia, Chairman of the LACNIC Board. In his speech, Maia stressed that, even though 94% of LACNIC’s more than 9,600 members have received IPv6 addresses, work must continue to connect the 33% of the regional population who have yet to access the digital world. 

Tutorials. The number of tutorials offered during this meeting was higher than usual. In addition to the tutorials on Advanced IPv6, RPKI and BGP, Changing Internet Policies, Peering and Resource Management, this time the agenda also included the tutorials titled Internet Policies, How to Use the Tools Provided by RIPE NCC for Network Operators, Best Security Practices for Autonomous Systems, and Wi-Fi and IPv6.

Panels. The event also featured two prominent panels. First on the agenda was the panel on the Evolution of DNS Privacy and Security which discussed the creation and implementation of DNS security extensions or DNSSEC. Then, Friday welcomed the panel on Technologies for Small ISPs with representatives from ISPs in Mexico, Panama and Brazil, who agreed that proximity to their clients is what differentiates them and that partnering and working together is the best way to face the challenge posed by major operators.

For the first time, Tomás Lynch chaired the Public Policy Forum, a session during which nine policy proposals were presented. In addition, Sergio Rojas and Carlos Martínez of LACNIC presented the challenges presented by the implementation of inter-RIR transfers (policy 2019-1) which will come into effect next July.

The LACNOG meeting was opened by Erika Vega, Lía Solís and Lucimara Desiderá. First on the agenda was the keynote presentation titled 5G: An Engineer’s Perspective, during which Igor Giangrossi of Nokia described the evolution of the mobile network, its architecture, the innovations introduced by 5G and how they affect IP network requirements.

Among others, LACNOG sessions also addressed topics such as routing, route leaks, the latest news on IPv6, and MANRS. Click here to watch recordings of these presentations.

LACNIC 32 also welcomed the first Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) Forum, which was attended by members of regional CSIRTs, Team Cymru (the global organization specializing in cybersecurity), Interpol members and members of the Panamanian Bureau of Police Investigations, among others. The various actors who participated in this meeting identified that communication, knowledge and trust are key for the proper handling of security incidents.

The FORT Project, a joint initiative of LACNIC and NIC Mexico for strengthening routing security and protecting Internet freedom in the region, was also on the agenda. In this sense, Augusto Mathurin shared an analysis of recent routing events and incidents in Latin America, while Gerardo Pias presented a series of tools to help detect, mitigate and make informed decisions when faced with a routing incident.

Likewise, another collaboration initiative was presented at the event, in this case, a joint initiative by LACNIC and RIPE NCC known as Inforedes, a platform that allows searching for data and information on Internet resources in the region and worldwide. We invite you to click here to explore this platform.

Finally, during the closing ceremony, the city of Cali, Colombia, was announced as the host of LACNIC33. LACNIC’s next annual event is set to take place on 4 to 8 May 2020 at the Valle del Pacífico Convention Center, with the support of Emcali.