Secure Communication 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 for the lowest prices and the best services, to buy goods on behalf of a user, etc. These applications involve a number of security issues, such as communications security, system security, and application security, that have to be solved. This paper describes how communications security is added to a lightweight agent framework. Secure agent-based electronic commerce applications require communications security services. Adding these services is a first basis and an important enabler for the framework in order to be used for secure electronic commerce applications.