This paper discusses new Information Warfare concepts related to the use
of intelligent software agents on the internet. Intelligent agents are one of
the fastest growing new areas of computer science; they are becoming
recognized as an essential element of future computing architectures for both
the military and businesses. The basic intelligent software agent concept
involves dispatching a group of processes across a network to service a user's
request at remote locations and to return selected results. Sometimes the term
"network robot" or "bot" is used to describe variations of this concept.
With the global growth of high bandwidth backbones and the expanded use of
mobile computing, intelligent agents fill an essential niche as surrogates and
extensions of the mobile user. Agents are used to assist users in coping with
the ever increasing extent of information on the internet. In general, agents
operate autonomously and seek to accomplish user-specified goals. They have
rules that constrain their operation and are reactive to changes they detect in
their environment. Advanced agents interact and collaborate with other agents
and learn from their experiences. Other advances include increasingly
sophisticated abilities to adapt their behavior. In networked environments,
agents can be mobile to seek the information they need or to follow their user.
For mobile users who only connect to a network periodically, the intelligent
agent can act as a surrogate representative.
From a tactical military perspective, intelligent agentscan be also be
categorized as either cooperative or malicious. Cooperative software agent
technology depends on the use of standards and technologies to support remotely
requested services. Cooperative software agents contrast with malicious
software such as viruses and worms that operate surreptitiously without the
permission or knowledge of the host. Examples of these have been well-known
since the Morris Worm incident of 1988.
In this paper we discuss information warfare aspects of this technology,
including information acquisition, protection, processing, transport,
management, and denial. We view each area from both military and commercial
perspectives.
