crunchy outside, chewy center

expression

security

The classic critique of perimeter-only security: a hard shell around a soft, defenseless inside.

Bill Cheswick's 1990 description of firewalled networks - a sort of crunchy shell around a soft, chewy center - is still the sharpest one-liner about why one perimeter is not a strategy. Everything from segmentation to zero trust is an answer to it.

Also known as: hard shell, soft center, M&M security

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