1. In firewalls, a DMZ is an area that is mostly public to the Internet. This is where a companies web, e-mail, and DNS servers are located. A DMZ often has some limited protection, but since it is very exposed to the Internet, the assumption is that the machines in the zone will eventually be compromised. Therefore, the machines often have as little connectivity to the private network as any other machine from the Internet. From Hacking-Lexicon