What is the purpose of a DMZ in network security?

• A. To encrypt data in transit
• B. To separate public-facing services from internal networks
• C. To back up network configurations
• D. To route traffic to internal servers

Answer: (B)

A DMZ is a buffer zone between an untrusted network (like the internet) and the trusted internal network. Its purpose is to place public-facing services in a controlled, isolated area so that access to the internal network is restricted. By hosting servers such as a web or mail server in the DMZ and applying strict firewall rules, you reduce the risk: if a public server is compromised, the attacker would still face an additional boundary before reaching internal resources. This containment makes breaches less likely to impact sensitive systems.

encrypting data in transit is handled by encryption protocols (TLS/SSL), not the DMZ itself; backing up configurations is a data management task; and routing traffic to internal servers isn’t the primary role of a DMZ, which is about isolating public services from the core network.