The cybersecurity crisis we face today can be traced back to a single, fundamental decision: allowing public access to secure networks. This chapter explores how the decision to implement public access models, beginning with the first so-called "secure public portals," introduced vulnerabilities that have since compounded and spread across the entire digital landscape. While the Internet was initially built for openness, the decision to extend public access to secure environments created an inherent flaw, one that has multiplied over time, resulting in today’s widespread cybersecurity breaches.