RE: Requirements for Open IESG Positions

I thought the requirements were too specific for the SEC area last year
as well :) I do realize that the text has been largely reused from last
year, but, I think we need to revisit some of these specific
descriptions.  

We cannot expect the Nomcom to be familiar enough with all areas to use
their judgment in addition to the requirements received.  I think we
need to get better at providing the requirements so that the Nomcom will
really know what they are looking for in candidates.  

At the moment, I really think the SEC area requirements are misleading
to the Nomcom and can use a revision.  

Vidya 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Russ Housley [mailto:housley(_at_)vigilsec(_dot_)com] 
> Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 2:01 PM
> To: Narayanan, Vidya
> Cc: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
> Subject: RE: Requirements for Open IESG Positions
>
> One important thing needs to be considered in the Security 
> and O&M Areas.  There are two ADs, and they are expected to 
> have somewhat different skill sets.  For contrast, here are 
> the requirements that were provided to NomCom2006 for these positions.
>
> Russ
>
> -----------------------------------------------
> Operations & Management Area:
>
> The primary technical areas covered by the Operations & 
> Management area include: Network Management, AAA, and various 
> operational issues facing the Internet such as DNS 
> operations, IPv6 operations, Routing operations.
>
> Unlike most IETF areas, the Operations & Management area is 
> logically divided into two separate functions: Network 
> Management and Operations.
> David Kessens is currently responsible for the Operations 
> portion of the OPS area, so specific expertise required for 
> the open position would include a strong understanding of 
> Internet operations, as well as the ability to step into 
> Network Management issues when necessary.
>
> The Operations AD is largely responsible for soliciting 
> operator feedback and input regarding IETF work.  This is a 
> challenging task that requires strong contacts in the 
> operations community and a great deal of persistence.
>
> Another important role of the Operations AD is to identify 
> potential or actual operational issues regarding IETF 
> protocols and documents in all areas, and to work with the 
> other areas to resolve those issues.
> This requires a strong understanding of how new and updated 
> protocols may affect operations, and the ability to gather 
> information from the operations community and translate that 
> information into suggestions for protocol architecture and 
> design within the IETF.  It also requires a strong cross-area 
> understanding of IETF protocol architecture and technologies.
>
> The Operations portion of the OPS area intersects most often 
> with the Routing, Internet and Security areas.  So, 
> cross-area expertise in any of those areas would be 
> particularly useful.
>
> -----------------------------------------------
> Security Area:
>
> The WGs within the Security Area are primarily focused on 
> security protocols.  They provide one or more of the security 
> services:
> integrity, authentication, non-repudiation, confidentiality, 
> and access control.  Since many of the security mechanisms 
> needed to provide these security services are cryptographic, 
> key management is also vital.
>
> Security ADs are expected to ensure that all IETF 
> specifications are reviewed for adequate security coverage.  
> They also manage a set of security resources that are 
> available to most IETF areas and WGs.
>
> Specific expertise required for a Security AD would include a 
> strong knowledge of IETF security protocols, particularly 
> IPsec, IKE, and TLS, and a good working knowledge of security 
> protocols and mechanisms that have been developed inside and 
> outside the IETF, most notably including PKI.
>
> Also, a Security AD should understand how to weigh the 
> security requirements of a protocol against operational and 
> implementation requirements.  We must be pragmatic; otherwise 
> people will not implement and deploy the secure protocols 
> that the IETF standardizes.
>
> The Security Area intersects with all other IETF areas, and 
> its ADs are expected to read and understand the security 
> implications of documents in all areas.  So, broad knowledge 
> of IETF technologies and the ability to assimilate new 
> information quickly are imperative for a Security AD.
>
> At 02:44 PM 7/24/2007, Narayanan, Vidya wrote:
> > Some additional comments on the topic:
> >
> > In particular, taking the security area requirements as an 
> example, the 
> > description provided talks about expertise needed based on 
> the current 
> > ongoing work in the security area.  While this is one part, 
> we want ADs 
> > that can bring in/ evaluate new work which may or may not be 
> related to 
> > any of the ongoing work in the area.  Especially in the 
> security area, 
> > such relation to other work is very hard to predict.
> >
> > Personally, I don't think it is a requirement for an AD to 
> have a deep 
> > understanding of all the protocols produced by the area; rather, for 
> > the security area, for example, I think it is important that the ADs 
> > are capable of analyzing threat models and evaulating the security 
> > implications of work happening in other areas, or have a sufficient 
> > security background to grasp issues raised by experts of a certain 
> > protocol, etc.  I think it is much less important that the AD has a 
> > top-to-bottom understanding of TLS or Kerberos or IKEv2 or any one 
> > thing in particular.
> >
> > I provided this input last year as well and I think it is very 
> > important for us to select an "area generalist" as an AD over a 
> > specialist in a particular set of protocols.
> >
> > Vidya
> >
> >
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