[LINK] PM's staff shifts the Wikipedia blame

[Karl Auer]

On Thu, 2007-08-30 at 18:58 +1000, Rick Welykochy wrote:
> One of the IP addresses in question is 210.193.176.115.
> 
> <http://www.ip2location.com/demo.aspx> reports the following:
> 
> 210.193.176.150
> 210.193.176.115
> 210.193.176.100
> 210.193.176.80
> 210.193.176.60
> 210.193.176.45
> 210.193.176.30
> 210.193.176.19
> 
> are ALL "Dept of Prime Minister and Cabinet", Canberra.
> Anyone else smell a rat? Does this information belie Shergold's claims?

The thing is, this sort of statement is all it takes.  It is sufficient
for most people - and sufficient for the PM - to have a shadow of doubt
cast. We have a PM most proficient in turning shades of grey into
chequerboard black and white.

These are the names that the addresses in that /24 resolve to:

coagbushfireenquiry.gov.au.
nwccav001.intellicentre.net.au.
primecav02.intellicentre.net.au.
ggcav01.intellicentre.net.au.
primecav01.intellicentre.net.au.
pm.gov.au.
online.ausindustry.gov.au.
qa.online.ausindustry.gov.au.
info.tourism.gov.au.
forums.innovation.gov.au.
measurement.gov.au.
emr.mce.gov.au.
aircap.org.au.
www.axiss.com.au.
axiss.gov.au.
finance-education.gov.au.
phonebook.industry.gov.au.
online.industry.gov.au.
ditrcav003.intellicentre.net.au.
ditrcav001.intellicentre.net.au.
abcbcav001.intellicentre.net.au.
search.investaustralia.gov.au.
disr.gov.au.
innovation.gov.au.
www.mce.gov.au.
www.nopsa.gov.au.
ausindustry.gov.au.
aircap.org.au.
www1.industry.gov.au.
btr.gov.au.
tourism.gov.au.
valuechains.industry.gov.au.
apecenergy.org.au.
astec.gov.au.
biotechnology.gov.au.
tourismdotcom.gov.au.
sblegal.industry.gov.au.
aip.gov.au.
nanotechnology.gov.au.
scienceandindustry.gov.au.
wiggum.atwww.com.
isi.acma.gov.au.

Now I don't know: Am I enough of a conspiracy theorist to say they were
all created today? No. On the other hand, I think I know what is
happening: These are basically addresses for webservers and mail
exchangers, the "front end" for lots of minor agencies. But I'd bet
London to a brick that the address space is entirely within the control
of pm&c's network people, and that they - or people close to them - are
the phantom editors.

Most people don't know enough to realise that a /24 is most unlikely to
be subnetted, and even if it were, it would be almost certainly be into
subnets for the use  of departments or subdepartments that were very
close to each other.

Alternatively, the entire /24 has been mislabelled. We know that is not
the case, since we know that pm.gov.au is 210.193.176.19. It is
therefore extremely unlikely that Dr Shergold is telling the truth,
though (depending on his technical competence) he may understand it to
be the truth. But someone is almost certainly lying.

The only people who can tell us for sure are Macquarie Telecom. I wonder
if they will?

And the lie has probably done its work. It's not as if ISPs were high on
people's lists of ethical entities, in fact they are more likely
somewhere between used-car salesmen and politicians. Thanks, I should
stress, chiefly to Telstra BigPond, but also to a not insubstantial
extent on the pre-shakeout shenanigans of a few years ago...

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)