The big question: why on earth are the shutdown systems (or any others) connected to the Interwebs? How on earth could the risks of that justify whatever benefi

The big question: why on earth are the shutdown systems (or any others) connected to the Interwebs? How on earth could the risks of that justify whatever benefits there might be? Governments are stupid about all things except increasing their power and control, so it could be true. But I'm still skeptical. Does anyone know why these systems would be online and what benefits would be large enough to justify this?