Security mechanisms

Security risks are various. In addition to providing confidentiality for data communication between agents, it is also very important for agent designers and developers to take the following three basic security mechanisms into account:

1. Authentication: the mechanism that makes it possible for an agent to ascertain an origin of a received message; with the mechanism, an intruder should not be able to masquerade as someone else. For example, for a site or a node on the Internet, this mechanism makes it possible to verify the identification of a visiting mobile agent.

2. Integrity: the mechanism that makes it possible for agents to verify that a received message has not been modified in transit; with the mechanism, an intruder should not be able to substitute a false message for a legitimate one. The mechanism also makes it possible for a site or node on the Internet to verify that for instance, a legitimate mobile agent has not be modified in transit.

3. Nonrepudiation: the mechanism that makes an agent who sent a message not be able to falsely deny later that it sent the message. The mechanism may also make it impossible for anyone else to replay the message later.

To construct and use these security mechanisms itself is very crucial part in designing/planning procedure of commercial activities for agents.