Mobile Agents, Mobile Computing and Mobile Users in Global E-Commerce

2011 ◽  
pp. 278-288
Author(s):  
Roberto Vinaja
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Mobile Users ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Mobile Code ◽  
Export Controls ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
International Issues ◽  
Mobile Computers ◽  
The Impact

Mobile agents may reside in a host or client computer, and can also roam other computers, networks or the Internet to execute their tasks. In this chapter, we will examine the implications of mobility in three aspects: mobile code, mobile hardware and mobile users. The impact of mobility on electronic commerce in the areas of security issues; export controls, legal jurisdiction, taxation and international issues is also analyzed. Mobile agent technologies and mobile computers will play an important role in the new cyberspace economy, however many issues need to be addressed before the technology can be fully implemented.

Mobile Agent Authentication and Authorization

2009 ◽  
pp. 930-937
Author(s):  
Sheng-Uei Guan
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
The Internet ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Network Bandwidth ◽  
Authentication And Authorization ◽  
Authentication Schemes

With the increasing usage of the Internet, electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been catching on fast in a lot of business areas. As e-commerce booms, there comes a demand for a better system to manage and carry out transactions. This leads to the development of agent-based e-commerce. In this new approach, agents are employed on behalf of users to carry out various e-commerce activities. Although the tradeoff of employing mobile agents is still under debate (Milojicic, 1999), using mobile agents in e-commerce attracts much research effort, as it may improve the potential of their applications in e-commerce (Guan & Yang, 1999, 2004). One advantage of using agents is that communication cost can be reduced. Agents traveling and transferring only necessary information saves network bandwidth and reduces the chances of network congestion. Also, users can schedule their agents to travel asynchronously to the destinations and collect information or execute other applications, while they can disconnect from the network (Wong, Paciorek, & Moore, 1999). Although agent-based technology offers such advantages, the major factor holding people back from employing agents is still the security issues involved. On one hand, hosts cannot trust incoming agents belonging to unknown owners, because malicious agents may launch attacks on the hosts and other agents. On the other hand, agents may also have concerns on the reliability of hosts and will be reluctant to expose their secrets to distrustful hosts. To build bilateral trust in an e-commerce environment, the authorization and authentication schemes for mobile agents should be designed well. Authentication checks the credentials of an agent before processing an agent’s requests. If the agent is found to be suspicious, the host may decide to deny its service requests. Authorization refers to the permissions granted for the agent to access whichever resources it requested.

Mobile Agent Authentication and Authorization in E-Commerce

2011 ◽  
pp. 2567-2573
Author(s):  
Sheng-Uei Guan
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
The Internet ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Authentication And Authorization ◽  
Authentication Schemes ◽  
The One

With the increasing worldwide usage of the Internet, electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been catching on fast in a lot of businesses. As e-commerce booms, there comes a demand for a better system to manage and carry out transactions. This has led to the development of agent-based e-commerce. In this new approach, agents are employed on behalf of users to carry out various e-commerce activities. Although the tradeoff of employing mobile agents is still a contentious topic (Milojicic, 1999), using mobile agents in e-commerce attracts much research effort, as it may improve the potential of their applications in e-commerce. One advantage of using agents is that communication cost can be reduced. Agents traveling and transferring only the necessary information save the bandwidth and reduce the chances of network clogging. Also, users can let their agents travel asynchronously to their destinations and collect information or execute other applications while they can disconnect from the network (Wong, 1999). Although agent-based technology offers such advantages, the major factor that is holding people back from employing agents is still the security issues involved. On the one hand, hosts cannot trust incoming agents belonging to unknown owners, because malicious agents may launch attacks on the hosts and other agents. On the other hand, agents may also have concerns on the reliability of hosts and will be reluctant to expose their secrets to distrustful hosts. To build bilateral trust in an e-commerce environment, the authorization and authentication schemes for mobile agents should be well designed. Authentication checks the credentials of an agent before processing the agent’s requests. If the agent is found to be suspicious, the host may decide to deny its service requests. Authorization refers to the permissions granted for the agent to access whichever resource it requested. In our previous work, we have proposed a SAFER (Secure Agent Fabrication, Evolution & Roaming) architecture (Zhu, 2000), which aims to construct an open, dynamic and evolutionary agent system for e-commerce. We have already elaborated agent fabrication, evolution, and roaming in Guan (1999, 2001, 2002), Wang (2001), and Zhu (2001). This article gives an overview of the authentication and authorization issues on the basis of the SAFER architecture.

Realization of an Intelligent E-Commerce Model Based on Mobile Agent

2014 ◽  
Vol 543-547 ◽  
pp. 4198-4201
Author(s):  
Xiao Guang Li ◽  
Zhan Jun Gao
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Simulation Experiment ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Variable Time ◽  
Model Based

Mobile agent is one of the most prominent technologies believed to be playing an important role in future e-commerce. After presented an intelligent e-commerce model based on OBI ( open buying on the internet) , we developed a modified approach for the security of mobile agents and e-commerce, and designed an intelligent shopping algorithm based on variable time negotiation function. The presented model has been evaluated by simulation experiment. It has been found that the presented model is efficient.

Securing Mobile-Agent Systems through Collaboration

2010 ◽  
pp. 154-180
Author(s):  
Mohammed Hussain ◽  
David B. Skillicorn
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Telecommunication Networks ◽  
Agent Systems ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
System Calls ◽  
Mobile Agent Systems ◽  
Privacy Attack ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One

Mobile agents are self-contained programs that migrate among computing devices to achieve tasks on behalf of users. Autonomous and mobile agents make it easier to develop complex distributed systems. Many applications can benefit greatly from employing mobile agents, especially e-commerce. For instance, mobile agents can travel from one e-shop to another, collecting offers based on customers’ preferences. Mobile agents have been used to develop systems for telecommunication networks, monitoring, information retrieval, and parallel computing. Characteristics of mobile agents, however, introduce new security issues which require carefully designed solutions. On the one hand, malicious agents may violate privacy, attack integrity, and monopolize hosts’ resources. On the other hand, malicious hosts may manipulate agents’ memory, return wrong results from system calls, and deny access to necessary resources. This has motivated research focused on devising techniques to address the security of mobile-agent systems. This chapter surveys the techniques securing mobile-agent systems. The survey categorizes the techniques based on the degree of collaboration used to achieve security. This categorization resembles the difference between this chapter and other surveys in the literature where categorization is on the basis of entities/ parts protected and underlying methodologies used for protection. This survey shows the importance of collaboration in enhancing security and discusses its implications and challenges.

Security Issues in Pervasive Computing

2011 ◽  
pp. 196-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawan Ahmed Mohammed ◽  
Kashif Munir
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Distributed Computing ◽  
Pervasive Computing ◽  
Mobile Users ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Portable Devices ◽  
Wearable Computers ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Security Challenges

The change in physical structures of computing facilities into small and portable devices, or even wearable computers, has enhanced ubiquitous information processing. The basic paradigm of such pervasive computing is the combination of strongly decentralized and distributed computing with the help of diversified devices allowing for spontaneous connectivity via the Internet. In general, pervasive computing strives to simplify day-to-day life by providing mobile users with the means to carry out personal and business tasks via mobile and portable devices. This chapter examines the security challenges that are barriers to mainstream pervasive computing and explains why traditional security mechanisms fail to meet the demands of these environments.

A Security Strategy of Mobile Agent System

2013 ◽  
Vol 336-338 ◽  
pp. 2401-2405
Author(s):  
Ying Li ◽  
Bao Fang Hu ◽  
Chen Lin Wei
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Digital Certificate ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
Agent System ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third Party ◽  
Agent Migration

The paper aims at the security issues of the mobile agent system to propose a mobile agent system based on tracking mechanism which has a third-party certification center similar to an authority sector, whose hosts and mobile agents in mobile agent system are required to be registered in the third-party certification center so as to obtain a digital certificate issued by the third-party certification center. Each server launching mobile agent has a static communication agent Tracker, responsible for maintaining the context information launched by the mobile agent and agent migration thereby solving problems in the labyrinth and authentication of mobile agent in traditional mobile agent system so that the existing mobile agent system can become more secure and reliable.

A Mobile Agent Computation Model for Best Buy Searching

2011 ◽  
pp. 303-320
Author(s):  
Timothy K. Shih
Keyword(s):  
Information Retrieval ◽  
Electronic Commerce ◽  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Niche Overlap ◽  
Network Communication ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Simulation Design ◽  
Distributed Information ◽  
Control Programs

The Internet changes our shopping style. With the growing popularity of Web browsers, electronic commerce (EC) has become a trend of next-generation shopping style. EC software applications are written as Web document control programs, which run on service providers. The techniques used including information retrieval, network communication, database management, communication security and others. Due to the huge volume of data transmitted on the Internet, and the number of electronic commerce shoppers, currently the Internet is overloaded on its limited communication bandwidth. Research contributions are proposed to overcome this problem. Mobile agents are computer programs that can be distributed across networks to run on a remote computer station. The technique can be used in distributed information retrieval which allows the computation load to be added to servers, but significantly reduces the traffic of network communication. Many articles indicate that this approach is a new direction to software engineering. However, it is hard to find a theoretical base of mobile agent computing and interaction over the Internet. We propose a graph-based model, with a simulation design, for the mobile agents, which evolve over the Internet. Based on the concepts of food web (or food chain), one of the natural laws that we may use besides neural networks and genetic algorithms, we define agent niche overlap graph and agent evolution states for the distributed computation of mobile agent evolution. The proposed model can be used to build an environment for many electronic commerce applications, such as advertisement agent or survey questionnaire agent.

The Impact of Human Behavior on Cyber Security

2016 ◽  
pp. 403-422
Author(s):  
Nancy Houston
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Cyber Security ◽  
Cyber Attacks ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Behavioral Traits ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Policy And Strategy ◽  
Behavioral Aspects ◽  
The Impact

Perhaps the greatest challenge to cyber security is that people are inherently behind each cyber problem as well as its solution. The reality is that people have been stealing secrets and information and attacking others for thousands of years; the technology of the Internet just allows it to happen at a faster pace and on a larger scale. This chapter describes aspects of human behavior that impact cyber security efforts. Cognitive overload, bias, incentives and behavioral traits all affect the decision making of both those who develop policy and strategy, those who fall victim to cyber attacks, and those who initiate cyber attacks. Although limited research has been completed on the behavioral aspects of cyber security, many behavioral principles and models are applicable to cyber security issues.

Mobile Agents

2011 ◽  
pp. 343-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agostino Poggi ◽  
Michele Tomaiuolo
Keyword(s):  
Data Storage ◽  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Distributed Data ◽  
Distributed Data Storage ◽  
The Core ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Clear Idea

Current technological advances and the increasing diffusion of its use for scientific, financial and social activities, make Internet the de facto platform for providing worldwide distributed data storage, distributed computing and communication. It creates new opportunities for the development of new kinds of applications, but it will also create several challenges in managing the information distributed on the Internet and in guaranteeing its “on-time” access through the network infrastructures that realize the Internet. Many researchers believed and still believe that the mobile agents could propose several attractive solutions to deal with such challenges and problems. This chapter presents the core concepts of mobile agents, and attempts to provide a clear idea of the possibility of their use by introducing the problems they cope with, the application areas where they provide advantages with respect to other technologies and the available mobile agent technologies.

Mobile Code and Security Issues

2009 ◽  
pp. 2568-2582
Author(s):  
E. S. Samundeeswari ◽  
F. Mary Magdalene Jane
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Just In Time ◽  
Mobile Code ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Code Mobility ◽  
Complex Forms ◽  
Cooperating Agents ◽  
Execution Tracing

Over the years, computer systems have evolved from centralized monolithic computing devices supporting static applications, into client-server environments that allow complex forms of distributed computing. Throughout this evolution, limited forms of code mobility have existed. The explosion in the use of the World Wide Web, coupled with the rapid evolution of the platform- independent programming languages, has promoted the use of mobile code and, at the same time, raised some important security issues. This chapter introduces mobile code technology and discusses the related security issues. The first part of the chapter deals with the need for mobile codes and the various methods of categorising them. One method of categorising the mobile code is based on code mobility. Different forms of code mobility, like code on demand, remote evaluation, and mobile agents, are explained in detail. The other method is based on the type of code distributed. Various types of codes, like source code, intermediate code, platform-dependent binary code, and just-in-time compilation, are explained. Mobile agents, as autonomously migrating software entities, present great challenges to the design and implementation of security mechanisms. The second part of this chapter deals with the security issues. These issues are broadly divided into code-related issues and host-related issues. Techniques, like sandboxing, code signing, and proof-carrying code, are widely applied to protect the hosts. Execution tracing, mobile cryptography, obfuscated code, and cooperating agents are used to protect the code from harmful agents. The security mechanisms, like language support for safety, OS level security, and safety policies, are discussed in the last section. In order to make the mobile code approach practical, it is essential to understand mobile code technology. Advanced and innovative solutions are to be developed to restrict the operations that mobile code can perform, but without unduly restricting its functionality. It is also necessary to develop formal, extremely easy-to-use safety measures.

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