First line: perimeter control—firewalls, IDS, and strict access logs. Second line: segmentation—divide the network into subnets with least‑privilege gateways. Third line: encryption—TLS everywhere, end‑to‑end for sensitive payloads. Fourth line: authentication—multi‑factor, key‑based, and regular rotation. Fifth line: monitoring—continuous anomaly detection and automated incident response scripts. Bottom line: always leave a buffer zone, and test every layer with red‑team exercises.

Good point. I’d slot the honeypot as a separate, isolated subnet right next to the main perimeter. Give it realistic services, hard‑coded credentials, and a logger that feeds into the SIEM. Then the red‑team sees a “real” node but is actually feeding us traffic. That extra layer forces them to waste time and tells us where the real assets lie.