Comment Discussion with Client legal (Score 3, Informative) 348
they went from suggesting that there's no need for a firewall, to outright telling me that's just how they do it and the contract dictates that's how we need to run it. This isn't a tremendous deal today, but with how things are going, odds are there will be e-Commerce worked into it, and probably credit card transactions... which worries the bejesus out of me.
I suggest you relegate the 'is this common' question to a discussion after hours over a beer.
Your real issue is security. I would want to schedule 2 different meetings, preferably with everyone attending in person.
The first is a prep meeting with your client and their legal counsel to discuss your concerns, review the contract language that is being referenced by the vendor, and what liability the vendor has if the machine is compromised due to the vendor required there be no software firewall.
The second meeting would be with your client, their legal counsel, and the vendor.