What The Undeclared War Gets Right (and Wrong) About Cyber Conflict

Television shows about cybersecurity tend to fall into two camps: either they’re completely detached from reality, or they’re so technical that normal viewers fall asleep halfway through the first episode. When I heard that Channel 4’s The Undeclared War was getting a second season, I was curious to see which direction it would take—especially after hearing Simon Pegg hint that season 2 will fundamentally change things for the protagonist, Danny.

The problem with most fiction about cyber warfare is that it treats hacking like it’s a magic wand. A few keystrokes, some dramatic green code on a black screen, and suddenly critical infrastructure collapses or classified files appear on someone’s desk. That’s not how any of this actually works. But that doesn’t mean the show isn’t onto something real. The real threat of cyber warfare is far more mundane, far more human, and frankly, far more terrifying than Hollywood typically portrays it.

The Gap Between Fiction and Reality

Let me be clear about something: actual cyber warfare doesn’t look like a movie. There are no impossible-to-trace attacks that happen in seconds. There are no magical backdoors that work on every system. What there is, instead, is patience, planning, and an understanding that the human element is always the weakest link.

Real cyber operations take months or years to develop. They involve extensive reconnaissance. They depend on social engineering, credential harvesting, and persistence. A nation-state attacking another nation-state’s infrastructure isn’t looking for a quick hit—they’re looking to establish a persistent foothold that allows them to maintain access, gather intelligence, and prepare for potential escalation if needed.

The reason I bring this up is that if The Undeclared War is genuinely pivoting toward something that “changes everything,” I’m skeptical about where that pivot might lead. Will it become more realistic? Or will it lean further into dramatic oversimplification? There’s a tension there that matters, especially when a show like this reaches a mainstream audience and potentially shapes how ordinary people think about national security.

Why This Matters Beyond Entertainment

Here’s what keeps me up at night: the more people consume fictional representations of cyber warfare, the more their mental models of these threats become warped. Policymakers watch these shows too. They internalize the idea that cyber attacks happen like lightning strikes—sudden, devastating, and coming out of nowhere. This shapes how governments budget for defense, which regulations they put in place, and how they allocate resources.

The reality is messier:

• Most successful cyber operations exploit vulnerabilities that have existed for months or years without being patched
• Attribution is incredibly difficult and often ambiguous
• The line between cyber espionage and cyber warfare is blurry at best
• Defensive measures work, but only if they’re actually implemented with discipline and maintained consistently
• Human error causes more damage than technically sophisticated attacks

If a TV show hints that it’s about to “change everything,” I immediately wonder: are we about to see a more honest depiction of these challenges? Or are we headed toward a dramatic but unrealistic escalation that serves the plot but misleads the audience?

What Season 2 Could Actually Explore

If I had a say in how this story develops, I’d push for something grittier and more authentic. Show the frustration of defending against adversaries who have effectively unlimited resources and patience. Explore the organizational dysfunction that leads to security failures. Demonstrate how personal ambition, bureaucratic politics, and genuine incompetence can be just as damaging as any external attack.

The character of Danny apparently faces something transformative in season 2. That’s a storytelling opportunity. It could be an opportunity to show what it actually feels like to work in cyber defense—the moral ambiguity, the impossible choices, the fact that you’re almost never in control of the outcome.

It could also be an opportunity to show something uncomfortable: that cyber conflict exists in a space where traditional rules don’t quite apply, where attribution is uncertain, and where the defensive side is often playing catch-up against threats that are better funded, better organized, and operating without the same constraints.

The truth about cyber warfare isn’t that it’s impossible to defend against. It’s that defense requires consistency, investment, and a kind of boring discipline that doesn’t translate well to television. Whether The Undeclared War can pull that off while remaining entertaining is the real question.

Source: Simon Pegg hints The Undeclared War season 2 will change everything for Danny