An intelligent agent-based collaborative information security framework

In this paper we proposed a framework for collaborative intelligent agents in a distributed environment to execute sound security strategies for protecting information resources. First, the intelligent agent-based Duty Reliable Center (DRC) in the model uses the group decision method to determine a global information threat level. With the threat level, local agent employs the Bayes' decision procedure to calculate the expected loss of its all-possible actions, and then chooses an action among them with the minimum expected loss to protect its information resources. The proposed framework enables an agent to choose among alternatives in an optimal fashion, taking into account the worth of acquiring prior information to reduce uncertainty. Because system operations are distributed, hackers are unlikely to wreck the whole system. Thus, it is expected to yield information security cost-effective solutions. (C) 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.