In the RETSINA project[8], an agent consists of a set of functional modules, where each module deals with a specific aspect of agent functionality. For instance, ``communicator'' module is a RETSINA agent dealing with the communication with other agents. There are three modules involved in agent security: AgentEditor, Planner, and Security Module, which correspond to the three levers, policy specification, protocol generation, and operation execution. See also Figure 3.1.
Defining a set of security policies for a given task is the first
level job for agent security and it would be done by
the owner of the agent.
According to the security policy, a security protocol must be
generated by a functional module (planner) as a part of procedure
for the agent to complete the task.
To execute the security protocol, some basic security functions,
such as encryption, decryption, signing, verification, etc. would
be called during the execution of task.
The relationship among cryptographic functions, security operations,
security mechanisms, security protocol, and security policy are shown
in Figure 3.2.
