Providing privacy to agents in an untrustworthy environment

Agent technology gives many promises for future IT-systems, but providing security and privacy in particular is a difficult challenge. This paper addresses the privacy problems in agent technology and provides several solutions to overcome some of these problems. It is shown that if an encryption algorithm is used in a different form it can also provide privacy in communication for agents. Second, an agent digital signature is described that takes into consideration that the agent’s private key must be seen as the most privacy sensitive information of an agent. Finally, using information theory, a look is taken at the theoretic aspects of agent technology to find boundaries to what level of privacy and security a mobile software agent can be protected.