Techniques for data transfer

Are there any automated ways to transfer data from source to target knowing that there is no access to the source?
I know flat/csv files extraction can be an option but it doesn't seem to be an automated way...
Is there another way that is more automated?

Having the source system produce an extract is a relatively common way to handle it if direct access isn't permitted. Such processes are easily (and always) automated using scheduling tools. Why would you think otherwise?

Thanks for the answer

I assume by scheduling tools, you don't mean ETL techniques, do you?
Would you kindly elaborate on "scheduling tools"?

Job schedulers... Google the term. There are a lot of commercial and open source job scheduling products. Basically they allow you to schedule jobs to run in batch. They allow you to set up dependancies, alerts when things fail and so on...