Jeff Atwood clearly and coherently explains why connecting to the Internet is scary. It's especially scary when all of our devices - cars, lights, heating, gas pumps, locks, surveillance cameras, TVs, etc - are connected. Most of us have learned to be at least a bit careful with our computers but we tend to be more careless and trusting of those simple plugin devices. Unfortunately, among the weakest links are our routers and, once owned, it is really hard to escape the malware that controls them. Worse, like many of our devices, their updates and configuration tend to be ignored or forgotten. As more and more devices embed powerful and dangerous net-connected computers, this problem is going to get a lot worse over the coming years. Some good advice in this article on protecting yourself as best you can.