“Zero Day” on Netflix May Be Fiction, But Zero Days Are Inevitable

Netflix’s new series Zero Day paints a gripping (and terrifyingly plausible) picture of what a coordinated cyberattack on the U.S. could look like. The show’s premise is simple enough:  unknown hackers sabotage transportation and power infrastructure across the U.S, causing mass casualties and widespread panic. But the real threat isn’t just the initial attack, it’s the public’s inability to figure out what really happened, how to respond, and who to trust in the aftermath. 

“Every phone in the US displayed the same haunting message: This will happen again.”

Spoiler Alert: 

That’s when Robert De Niro (former President George Mullen) is called upon to lead an investigation and finds the hackers and saves the day … kidding, I haven’t actually watched the show yet but it’s how we all hope it unfolds.

In all seriousness, I don’t think anyone in cybersecurity thinks this is just Hollywood fearmongering. If they do, they should probably think again. 

Reality Check: Could This Happen Today?

Many experts believe a large-scale cyberattack like this is inevitable. In fact, recent reports on zero-day vulnerabilities and government disclosure policies paint a grim picture of just how unprepared organizations, businesses, and even governments really are.

While the show "Zero Day" is a work of fiction, it underscores a pressing and real concern: the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to cyberattacks. A recent report from Reuters highlighted a surge in cyber incidents targeting essential services. In 2024, cyberattacks on U.S. utilities increased by 70%, with experts warning of potential disruptions to power grids and communication networks. Additionally, the World Economic Forum's Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025 report emphasizes that escalating geopolitical tensions and sophisticated cyber threats pose significant risks to critical infrastructure.

See what I mean? This show’s portrayal of a nation grappling with the aftermath of a cyberattack hits a little too close to home. The increasing digitization of critical systems, combined with the rise of AI-driven cyberattacks, has expanded the attack surface, making it more challenging to defend against sophisticated threats. Trustwave's 2025 Cybersecurity Predictions highlight the rise of AI-powered cyberattacks and the increased targeting of critical infrastructure 

To add to the FUD, a report from Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) and Mandiant reported that the frequency of zero-day vulnerabilities (previously unknown flaws that hackers can exploit) has been rising year over year. In 2023, these researchers observed 97 zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in the wild, averaging approximately eight per month. This marked a significant increase from 62 in 2022. It's important to note that the discovery and exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities can vary annually, and not all are publicly disclosed. Therefore, while we can estimate an average, the actual number of zero-day vulnerabilities may fluctuate and is often higher than reported.

And last, but definitely not least, the U.S. government's approach to handling these vulnerabilities adds yet another layer of  … complexity. In 2023, the government publicly disclosed 39 zero-day vulnerabilities, a number that does not include those it may have retained for its own offensive cyber operations. This selective disclosure raises questions about the balance between national security interests and the protection of public infrastructure.

Whoops, almost forgot the recent glimpses we’ve seen of how this could play out:

• SolarWinds – A supply chain attack compromised thousands of organizations, including government agencies, for months before discovery.
• Colonial Pipeline – A single compromised password led to a ransomware attack that caused fuel shortages across the East Coast.
• Log4j – A zero-day vulnerability in a widely used logging framework created an open door for attackers across nearly every industry.

If another Log4j dropped today, how long would it take an organization to:

• Know if they’re vulnerable?
• Determine if their defenses could actually stop an exploit.
• Validate that their detection rules would trigger an alert.

For many security teams, unfortunately, these aren’t easy questions to answer.

Why Current Security Defenses Aren’t Enough

The convergence of these factors paints a sobering picture: as our reliance on interconnected systems grows, so does our exposure to cyber threats. The potential for a extreme 'Zero Day' event is not just a plotline but a plausible risk.

And to be clear, the problem isn’t that security teams aren’t working hard enough, quite the opposite in fact. It’s more that they’re operating in the dark and us security vendors haven’t made it much easier (that would take many more articles to break down). Organizations invest in SIEMs, EDR, WAFs, CSPMs, CWPPs, vulnerability scanners, etc. yet most don’t know if those tools will prevent an attack when it matters most.

Here’s why:

• Blind Spots in Attack Path Visibility: Most of the focus is on individual vulnerabilities instead of how attackers move through an environment and evade defenses. Attackers chain vulnerabilities together, often slipping through gaps no single tool was designed to catch.
• Unvalidated Security Controls: Just because a security control exists doesn’t mean it’s working. Organizations rely on WAFs, SIEM rules, and endpoint policies, but many never test them against real attack scenarios. How can they?
• Reactive, Not Proactive Defense: Most security efforts revolve around responding to incidents after they happen. But without preemptive validation, teams are always one step behind.

This is one of the reasons why threat actors continue to succeed. They don’t just find vulnerabilities; they chain multiple weaknesses together into attack paths that bypass traditional defenses. By the time security teams detect an incident, the damage is already done.

The Challenge: A Cybersecurity Playbook That’s Always Changing

Security leaders already know that attackers don’t follow the rules. They exploit unknown weaknesses, bypass traditional defenses, and operate faster than most organizations can react. With AI-driven attack techniques becoming more sophisticated, organizations can’t afford to be in a reactive stance.

Most security programs rely on vulnerability management tools that often operate in silos. Security teams are left drowning in alerts, unable to separate theoretical risks from actual threats. And when a zero-day emerges, they scramble to determine:

• Can this vulnerability be exploited in our environment?
• Are our existing security controls capable of stopping it?
• What detections do we have in place, and are they even working?
• If an attack occurs, how quickly will we detect and respond?

This is where most organizations struggle. Having security tools isn’t the same as knowing they work. Just because a SIEM ingests logs doesn’t mean it’s generating meaningful alerts. Just because an EDR is deployed doesn’t mean it’s stopping live attacks.

What Needs to Change: Proactive Security Validation

Security teams need a way to validate their defenses before attackers do. That means moving beyond static risk assessments and adopting continuous, real-world validation.

• Know Which Vulnerabilities Are Exploitable: Not all CVEs are created equal. Security teams need visibility into which vulnerabilities are weaponized and reachable by attackers, not just theoretical risks.
• Test Security Controls Against Real Attacks: Instead of assuming SIEM and EDR rules will trigger immediately, security teams should run real-world attack simulations to confirm their defenses will hold.
• Optimize Security Tools for Maximum Defense – Security investments should be continuously tested and tuned to ensure that every security layer (SIEM, EDR, WAF, CSPM, etc.) actively contributes to stopping attacks, not just generating noise.

The Solution: Preemptive Defense and Security Validation

Rather than waiting for the next Zero Day moment to expose gaps in defenses, security teams need a proactive strategy that validates their ability to withstand attacks before they happen.

Fortunately, that’s why Tuskira was built.

Tuskira unifies your security stack into an AI-powered security mesh that continuously maps real attack paths, validates defenses, and optimizes security controls across SIEM, EDR, CSPM, WAF, and more. Instead of reacting to threats after they break through, we help organizations test their defenses in advance by:

• Building a real-time digital twin of your most attackable exposure points to simulate attack scenarios without disrupting operations. Security teams don’t need to simulate their entire environment, just the areas that attackers will target first. Tuskira builds a real-time digital twin focused on high-risk entry points and lateral movement paths, ensuring defenses are validated where they matter most
• Running controlled attack simulations using real-world TTPs to identify exploitable weaknesses before attackers do. 
• Validating whether security tools are aligned to real threats, ensuring SIEM rules, EDR detections, and WAF policies actually work. 
• Generating actionable remediations and security control optimizations so teams can harden defenses before the next zero-day hits.

The Next Zero Day Is Inevitable. Being Unprepared Isn’t.

Are your defenses evolving faster than attackers' playbooks?

Security teams don’t need another dashboard filled with vulnerabilities, they need real validation that their defenses will hold up against real threats.

Let’s talk about how Tuskira can ensure your security stack is battle-ready against real threats, so the only Zero-Day you’re concerned with, is on Netflix

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