Automated Systems: Will Human Interaction go the way of the Dodo?

Recently, a classmate of mine posed the following statement;
"Do you see automated systems advancing in the near future to save developers more money? I understand that most times there needs to be human to human contact, but there has to be some way to take this to the next level. Software applications are replacing ATM's for crying out loud! I see this as another threat to humans' jobs though. I guess you just have to work in the right field." ~Jermaine Edwards


Here's some of my thoughts on the subject - what do you think?
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Eventually intuitive systems will replace most human to human interaction in the short term, making developers wallets fatter and our lives simpler. Programs will continue to get more complex as the demands of users change and technology advances.  The drawback is reduction in jobs, as was experienced during the first industrial revolution when mass production changed the way everything was done, and who was no longer needed on the manufacturing floor.  As you mentioned, ATM's are being replaced with iPhone apps.  Eventually, I think bank branches will be replaced by full-service, online, interactive banking.  We have robots that build our vehicles - one robot can do the work of 100 men in far less time; robots that perpetually clean our floors and recharge themselves when necessary; planes that can fly themselves around the world without pilot interference, etc..  I think beyond our lifetimes is when true artificial intelligence will be born, like we see in movies today.  Only then do I think will human interaction become obsolete because it will not longer be necessary - an intelligent machine in our life will perform many, if not all, of the functions we perform today, leaving little left for the human to do except system maintenance and maintain physical relationships as desired.  That may be an extreme example, but one that I think has a real chance of eventually becoming reality with the way technology is advancing.  It is a trickle down effect - a new advancement causes a common product to become obsolete which leaves manufacturers without a product to make, distributors without a product to sell, and service providers without a means to an end.  The consumer enjoys the benefit of a great product delivered quicker than ever, but the supply chain dwindles to a computer server and a delivery truck.  This is a profitable arrangement for the manufacturers but leaves everyone that was in the middle stuck to reinvent themselves or close their doors.

There is also another side to this - the green effect, meaning that the reduction in effect on the environment and the effect that has on job availability. As technology advances, so too do the materials they are manufactured from.  Most machines and consumables can be recycled today, or are biodegradable and non-toxic.  Also, the increase in use of Internet based storage and collaboration has significantly reduced the amount of paper output, as well as reduced the quantity of laser toner/ink cartridges used, which further reduces the environmental impact.  This affects the job market as well, automation has a long history of leaving people/industries jobless, such as when mass production was introduced in the early 20th Century and a lot of factory workers were replaced with machines.  As technology advances we invent or refine machines to help us in our endeavors, initially as tools to enhance an experience or quicken a solution.  Now, machines are seen as a necessity of life - for many to keep up with an ever evolving world, for others just to keep track of their daily lives.  Whatever it is used for, humans are more dependant on machines and technology now than we every have been.  Unfortunately, I think a dose of laziness is driving a lot of today's innovations, leaving consumers to sit on their couches, at their desks, or in their cars doing whatever they want, whenever they want. 

As far as working in the right field, IT seems to be a big fit now and in the future.  We must be mindful not to loose control though, what if god forbid every electronic system on the planet went dead and we all had to go back to doing it manually.  Since business has married to technology for a while now, how many companies, and individuals for that matter, do you think could really survive in an old-fashioned world?  My guess, a lot less than any of us think.


Tell me what you think, post a comment below.


-Geek

Back to Spam

Most companies make use of some type of Spam and Virus Protection which does a remarkable job of neutralizing unsolicited and detrimental messages, so how is it that spam still exists and thrives to wreak havoc? Below are some of the five most common pitfalls that allow spam to continue, and what you can do about it:

Zombie Workstations
Either via an inbound spam message that was missed, a website exploiting a bug in a browser, or an infected file being transported onto your network by a user, workstations are very prone to being infected with malicious code in the form of a virus, malware, trojan, or the like. The source can be complicated to cure, but there's a very simple fix to save the rest of us from those machines sending us spam, and getting your public IP Blacklisted to boot.

Simply configure an outbound firewall rule to only allow outbound connections on port 25 from your in-house mail server. If you don't have a mail server, then your network shouldn't need to make outbound connections on port 25 (or inbound ones for that matter). You may need to reconfigure some Email clients who are using port 25 to connect to their SMTP server, but most servers these days have the ability to leave port 587 open for this type of connection.

By shutting down your local network from creating outbound 25 traffic, you are removing the ability for your workstations to generate a message and deliver it without going through your gateway which you as a good sys-admin monitor and control.

Servers Acting as Open Relays
The next largest source of unintentional spam are misconfigured servers or servers with accounts that have weak passwords. By not having authentication configured correctly you can allow connections from the outside to use your server to send mail. Spammers will just troll IP addresses looking for Open Relays and exploit any hole that is left open for them to use your server to send their spam. Additionally they can find the home server for an email account and attempt to authenticate as that user with a "brute force" password attack. However brute is not a fitting adjective when you let your users set up their account with their password set to "password" or "1234" or the like.

At the very least, we recommend having a good firewall in front of your mail server to look for these types of attacks. Ideally you would have either an Edge MTA which acts as a perimeter for your main mail server or employ a cloud based solution so that you can block incoming traffic against your mail server from anybody but that trusted source which has very high levels of security in place.

Clever Trickery
Spammers are tricky devils and they learn and adapt to email defense systems to break those systems or to circumvent them. One example that demonstrates the type of adaptability that Email Security professionals have to deal with is Backscatter spam. As an operator of a legitimate email server, one of the things your server does to be helpful to other servers is generate email containg error messages when messages encounter problems. For example if somebody sends you an email to an address that doesn't exist, it is helpful for your server to send the original sender a notification Non-Delivery Report (NDR) to let them know that their message wasn't delivered.
Spammers can make use of this feature in the following way: They create a message and forge the From: field to contain the email address of their intended target. Then they send this message to an email address they know doesn't exist on your server in your domain. Your server kindly sends back a notification to the person it thought sent the message. In fact you just delivered the message for the spammer from your server and IP address which they most likely trust. This type of spam is difficult to detect and block because it is technically an illegitimate notification. 
The solution to eradicate this type of spam is to perform the test to see if the user exists during the SMTP conversation. By doing that, your server is never actually accepting the message from the sender and therefore need not generate a notification message. The sending server with a legitimate message for a non-existent address is then responsible for notifying it's own user of the failure.

Malware, Trojans & Viruses
These three words strike fear into all system administrators. You know that if your workstations become infected with malware, a trojan or a virus you have hours of work ahead of you identifying and eradicating the source.

Malware spreads spam by infecting a computer by secretly accessing a computer system without the owner's informed consent. The infection can spread through several sources including computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, dishonest adware, crimeware, most rootkits, and other malicious and unwanted software. In the end you are left with a barely working machine that could be blasting out spam and spreading the infection further.

Trojans are malware that appear to perform a desirable function for the user prior to run or install but instead facilitates unauthorized access of the user's computer system. It is a harmful piece of software that looks legitimate. Users are typically tricked into loading and executing it on their systems. Once executed machines are often turned into zombie bots that send out spam.

Viruses are computer programs that can copy themselves and infect computers. A virus can spread from one computer to another (in some form of executable code) when its host is taken to the target computer; for instance because a user sent it over a network or the Internet, or carried it on a removable medium such as a floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB drive.

New Spam Tactics
Filter providers continue to hone their techniques in this constant game of cat and mouse. The latest trend is a shift to email worms. "The worm arrives via emails with the subject line 'Here You Have' or something similar, and the messages contain a link to a site that will download a malicious file to the victim's PC. The malware then drops itself into the Windows directory with a file name of CSRSS.EXE, which is identical to a legitimate Windows file." (Slashdot)

Wrap up
A few years ago the worse spam you saw was "image spam", this type of spam tricked the filters because it was a .jpg or .gif file that was at that time allowed by most servers as a non-threat. However, each day spam is evolving to become more aggressive and preys on your unassuming users. As well, many sources of online threats have shifted their attention from launching attacks through email systems and have targeted web browsers as an often unguarded entryway into a network. To combat all of these threats, it is highly recommended to include a Business Perimeter Security Solution in combination with Web Filtering.