The toaster did it

YOUR toaster burns and the freezer spoils your food, all at the whim of a malevolent foreign power. A new kind of domestic warfare could become a reality when everyday gizmos acquire their own internet addresses so they can in theory be turned against us by cyber-attacks, aided perhaps by sabotaged microchips (see “Fighting wars in cyber space”). It is reassuring that the US plans to study these and other bizarre possibilities in the world’s first cyberwar “shooting gallery”. Alas, domestic gadgets will never again seem quite so friendly and helpful.