Is the Network Boundary Disappearing?

In a recent conversation with the network manager of a large, multi-campus organisation, I mentioned the ISF paper from last week. The manager had read it and contended that the network boundary is coming back in the form of DMZs and VPNs. That is, one can count on the network administrators to secure the executing environment so that applications do not need to worry about such issues.

This is a red herring. Computers are inherently unsecure and one should never rely wholeheartedly on another person to affect a secure environment for your code. [read more]