On September 4th, Google moved to close a wound already bleeding — a zero-day flaw in Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine that attackers had been quietly exploiting before any remedy existed. The vulnerability placed ordinary users at risk simply for browsing the web, a reminder that the digital infrastructure beneath daily life is perpetually contested terrain. In the gap between discovery and patch, the question is never whether such flaws exist, but how swiftly the response can outrun the harm.