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Open-network
multi-agent systems face security threats from malicious agents.
These agents may try to unregister their competitors from
Agent Name Servers (ANSs) and Matchmakers,
eavesdrop on supposedly private communications, and spoof
other agents, including their own human delegators. System
integrity demands that agent deployers be held accountable
for problems caused by misbehaving agents.
The security
architecture we are developing counteracts these threats by
binding each agent to a unique Agent ID (or AID). To prevent
agent spoofing or masquerading, we use a certification mechanism
that requires agent deployers to register their agents prior
to deployment. To join a system, agents need to get a public
key pair, and have it certified by an agent certification
authority. This public key pair and corresponding certificate
are used to securely identify the agent.
Within
this security infrastructure, all interactions with RETSINA
mediating agents (e.g., Matchmakers, Agent Name Servers) require
signatures and certificates. Inter-agent interactions can
also be secured through the application of security protocols,
such as Netscape's SSL (Secure Socket Layer Protocol).
Applications
of Secure ANS
Secure ANS has been implemented in the following applications:
For more
information, see the following publication:
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