Playing It Safe

 

Over the past few months, we have been looking at the issues surrounding agent-based systems. We’ve examined the basics of agent systems, types of agents and how to use them effectively, and an overview how agents communicate. (See the other agent stories by James Odell on the gantthead gurus page.) Yet another thing to remember when developing agent-based systems is the security of these system, especially as they exist in open environments.

Agent security [1]
Agents are software entities that often run in a distributed computing environment and interact with many other software entities, including other agents. When software runs in a distributed environment, security issues are numerous. The possibility of encountering security problems increases in open environments, such as the Internet or a virtual private network, or in any environment where all the entities are not known, understood and administered by a single group.

Various types of security risks are described below. Many of these risks are inherent to distributed computing environments, particularly when software passes messages that can be intercepted, modified or destroyed. While this is a threat to agent systems, it is also a threat to any software system that depends on messages being passed reliably. Another risk centers on whether or not the software can assume that it is using …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.