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Software Agents

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(@inprivate)
Posts: 18
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I was asked about software agents which i explained as a virtual team of tireless laborers working continuously 24/7 to monitor, extract, process, deliver and integrate information from a number of data sources. Software agents have the ability to report to humans, raise alarms or report back findings for a specific search. Software agents require a certain amount intelligence and require certain protocols to communicate. They act on behalf of or assist users to automate repetitive tasks and summaries complex data, make recommendations and remember events. Now then i started to think of examples which relate to computer forensics or digital forensics, the one example i did think of was bank card transactions where if a withdrawal of money is carried out from a location using a persons card who normally doesn't take money out from a particular location then the software agent picks this up and alerts the banks who contact the person to ensure it is he who is making the withdrawal and not someone else, basically preventing fraud.

Can anyone give me anymore examples of Software Agents relative to digital forensics or preventing crime.

Thank You

 
Posted : 12/05/2012 12:53 am
(@athulin)
Posts: 1156
Noble Member
 

Now then i started to think of examples which relate to computer forensics or digital forensics, the one example i did think of was bank card transactions where if a withdrawal of money is carried out from a location using a persons card who normally doesn't take money out from a particular location then the software agent picks this up and alerts the banks who contact the person to ensure it is he who is making the withdrawal and not someone else, basically preventing fraud.

But an agent is a self-contained entity, and operates on behalf of a user. Fraud detection is usually not done that way, nor is security log monitoring or web page watching. Those are 'watch a single log, in a single place, and watch *everything*', and report according to central configuration, not just data relating to one single user.

If there was a software architecture that fed card transactions to a data bus, in which external entities (the agents) were allowed to plug-in, and watch the transactions they were authorized to see, and report significant events back to their 'owner', and that that owner had some mechanism for building/configuring this kind of separate entity, tell it, for example, 'watch what happens on my account, and scream if necessary', and it would (preferrably on its own) multiply/propagate to banks, shops, ATMs … you name it – systems where there is a relevant card transaction data flow, and plug itself in, but no more than one instance per actual data flow – that would be a reasonably full software agent. Particularly if it 'died' when the card was revoked or cancelled.

(Some of the examples given on the 'Software agent' page on Wikipedia are not software agents, but user-configurable services, which is different, as the self-containment is missing as well as the user-specific relation. I have searches on Abebooks for certain titles and certain authors – but they're no software agents except in the minds of sales droids.)

The closest match I can think of myself is a computer virus and its payload. The only thing I can think of that doesn't make it a software agent is that it is not authorized to do the thing it is doing.

I don't see any connection with computer forensics. Computer security, maybe, but nothing that cannot be done easier by other methods – at least right now. Crime prevention … the only thing that keeps popping into my mind are those three-legged 'spiders' used in Minority Report to look for suspects by retinal scanning, that knew to stay inside the search perimeter, and didn't repeat scans needlessly …

 
Posted : 12/05/2012 11:12 am
(@inprivate)
Posts: 18
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Topic starter
 

Excellent reply, Thank You )

 
Posted : 12/05/2012 11:34 pm
(@angrybadger)
Posts: 164
Estimable Member
 

I'm interested, in what context did lecturer post this question ?

 
Posted : 13/05/2012 8:05 pm
(@jonathan)
Posts: 878
Prominent Member
 

I'm interested, in what context did lecturer post this question ?

I thought exactly the same.

 
Posted : 13/05/2012 9:51 pm
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