Nanotechnology May Mean Email Spam Turns into Actual Unwanted Products on Your Work Desk

The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology have asked an interesting question about the future. Email inboxes are plagued by unwanted spam email. Many of which simply try to sell us unwanted goods and services. Others are more sinister and either harbour computer viruses and trojan horses within them, or attempt to send the unwary to a dubious website set to take control of yourcomputer or credit card. The question being asked is - what if the spam of the future comes in the form of unwanted 3D objects appearing on your desk via advances in nanotechnology?

The CRN  blog writes "When your home or office includes a desktop nanofactory as a standard appliance, how easy will it be for hackers to steal (or buy) your machine's unique address and send instructions to produce unwanted physical products?! It could be something as "innocent" as a clever marketing ploy to get you to try a new product. Or it could be something as dangerous as a smart bomb designed to look like a toy or a new electronic gadget."

Past behaviour is the best indicator of future behaviour so I suspect the 3D spam will be similar in content to current spam. They will be after our money. The things popping up on your desk could range from exotic naked figurines of the latest 'starlet' in attempt to get you to subscribe to a particlular porn channel, to robotic devices that will search your office in search of credit card info, financial data, company secrets or more likely, just to take a photo of the Post It Note stuck to your screen with all your passwords written on it. A high tech hack to expolit a widespread security issue.