In information security, de-perimeterisation [a] is the removal of a boundary between an organisation and the outside world. [1] De-perimeterisation is protecting an organization's systems and data on multiple levels by using a mixture of encryption, secure computer protocols, secure computer systems and data-level authentication, rather than the reliance of an organization on its network boundary to the Internet. Successful implementation of a de-perimeterised strategy within an organization implies that the perimeter, or outer security boundary, was removed.
Metaphorically, de-perimeterisation is similar to the historic dismantling of city walls to allow the free flow of goods and information. To achieve this there was a shift from city states to nation states and the creation of standing armies, so that city boundaries were extended to surround multiple cities.
De-perimeterisation was coined by Jon Measham, a former employee of the UK's Royal Mail in a 2001 research paper, and subsequently used by the Jericho Forum of which the Royal Mail was a founding member. [2]
Claims made for removal of this border include the freeing up of business-to-business transactions, the reduction in cost and the ability for a company to be more agile. Taken to its furthest extent an organisation could operate securely directly on the Internet.
Operating without a hardened border frees organizations to collaborate, utilizing solutions based on a Collaboration Oriented Architecture framework.
The work, particularly by the Jericho Forum, on de-perimeterisation has fed into two key areas of computing:
More recently the term is being used in the context of a result of both entropy and the deliberate activities of individuals within organizations to usurp perimeters often for well intentioned reasons. The Jericho Forum paper named " Collaboration Oriented Architecture" refers to this trend of de-perimeterisation as a problem:
Problem
The traditional electronic boundary between a corporate (or ‘private’) network and the Internet is breaking down in the trend which we have called de-perimeterisation. [3]
Variations of the term have been used to describe aspects of de-perimeterisation such as: