From 12–16 May, the RIPE community gathered in Lisbon for RIPE 90, bringing together over 820 attendees from 55 countries. With 648 joining in person and 172 online, the event once again proved to be a vital space for collaboration across network operations, policy, and research.
A Strong Start and Key Themes
The event kicked off with welcomes from RIPE Chair Mirjam Kühne, .PT’s Luisa Ribeiro Lopes, and RIPE NCC’s Hans Petter Holen. It set the stage for a packed week of talks focused on routing security, network resilience, visibility tools, and community leadership.
Maria Farrell’s keynote, How to Rewild the Internet, offered a fresh perspective on how we think about Internet openness and control. Another popular session was Timo Hilbrink’s story of launching an ISP with zero resources—grounded, inspiring, and very RIPE.
Technical deep-dives followed, covering topics like:
- The state of RouteViews (Nina Bargisen)
- Hidden attack traffic as the “microplastics of the Internet” (Leslie Daigle)
- BGP and BMP data collection (Alexander Azimov)
- Monitoring submarine cable outages and power blackouts via RIS and Atlas
Fast-paced lightning talks also stood out, covering IPv6 routing loops, Kubernetes networking, and cache eviction algorithms—all showing the wide range of operational challenges facing today’s Internet.
Research Meets Reality
This year’s RACI (RIPE Academic Cooperation Initiative) talks created important bridges between academia and operations. Topics ranged from critical BGP prefix analysis and SSH key abuse detection, to the impact of the Ukraine war on Internet peering.
These talks reminded us how academic work can have direct, practical relevance—especially when backed by real measurement data and operational context.
Community Transitions
As always, RIPE 90 wasn’t just about tech—it was also about people.
The community welcomed several new Working Group Chairs:
- Yevheniya Nosyk (DNS)
- Anna Maria Mandalari (IoT)
- Franziska Lichtblau (Address Policy)
We also thank the outgoing chairs—William Sylvester, Peter Wehrle, and Doris Hauser—for their long-standing contributions.
On the Programme Committee side, Clara Wade was re-elected, and Amedeo Beck Peccoz joined as a new member.
Takeaways from FastNetMon
For us at FastNetMon, RIPE 90 reinforced the importance of visibility tools, routing hygiene, and crisis resilience. Talks about how the network reacts to disruption—whether geopolitical or infrastructural—align closely with the work we do, helping operators monitor and defend their networks.
It’s always inspiring to see the strength and openness of the RIPE community. We’re looking forward to continuing the conversations at RIPE 91 in Bucharest later this year.
About FastNetMon
FastNetMon is a leading solution for network security, offering advanced DDoS detection and mitigation. With real-time analytics and rapid response capabilities, FastNetMon helps organisations protect their infrastructure from evolving cyber threats.
For more information, visit https://fastnetmon.com