Enabling a Lightweight Software Agent Framework for Secure Agent-based Electronic Commerce Applications

Although electronic commerce is a relatively new concept, it has already become a normal aspect of our daily life. The software agent technology is also relatively new. In the area of electronic commerce, software agents could be used for example to search the lowest prices and the best services, to buy goods on behalf of a user, etc. These applications involve a number of security issues that have to be solved. More in particular, communication security, system security, and application security, have to be provided. This paper describes how communication security is added to a lightweight agent framework. Secure agent-based electronic commerce applications require communication security services. As such, the addition of these services to the lightweight agent framework is an important enabler for the framework in order to be used for these applications.