Using DMZ for External Access

If the appliance is used for connectivity to sources outside your organization’s private network, NextGen Healthcare recommends that the unit be placed into a DMZ (de-militarized zone) network. A DMZ is a network segment separated from both the public and private networks by a firewall.

A typical security policy is that no network connection is allowed from the outside (public) network directly to the internal network. All devices accepting connections from public sources must reside in a DMZ network. Only connections originating from the DMZ network are allowed to penetrate the internal firewall.

This setup provides two levels of firewall protection between the public and private networks. For outside attackers to penetrate the internal network, they would first need to compromise a host on the DMZ.