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Firewalls, a history lesson: "Recently, a rather high profile software company has been taken to task about its patching strategy. One of the comments that was made by the customers of this company was basically: 'We don't have to worry, all our servers are behind a firewall'. I've got to be honest and wonder why these people that their firewall somehow protects their systems?  A firewall is the outside of what is known as 'M&M Security' - Hard and Crunchy outside, Soft and Chewy inside.  The basic problem with M&M security is that once a bad guy (or worm, or virus, or malware of any form) gets behind the crunchy outside, the game is over. George Santayana once said 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'.  And trusting in a firewall is an almost perfect example of this. It turns out that there's a real-world example of a firewall that almost perfectly mirrors today's use of firewalls.  It's actually quite uncanny in its accuracy. Immediately after WW1, the French, seeing the potential for a threat from Germany, built a series of fortifications known as the 'Maginot Line'.  These were state-of-the art fortifications designed to protect against most if not all the threats known at the time. (Image stolen from wikipedia). From all accounts, the Maginot Line was a huge success. "