Espionage in Information Warfare

by Christopher D. Noble

Espionage in Information Warfare

By Commander Christopher D. Noble USN, USAWC Class 1998 Spy

In the future not all spies will be human. Some will be Artificial Intelligence Software Agents.

According to the Wordsmyth English Dictionary, there are two common meanings for the word spy.

Noun:

1. A person employed by a nation's government to secretly observe and gather information about another nation's activities, plans, defenses, and the like.

2. A person who secretly observes and gathers information about others, usu. for pay or profit.

Verb:

1. To observe secretly and carefully, usu. for hostile reasons (usu. fol. by on or upon).

2. To be employed and active as a spy.

3. To look for or investigate something.

All these definitions appear to call for some form of human action, but this is not an absolute. Spying is done by entities most capable with respect to the information being collected. In cyberspace, digital agents are far more effective as spies than humans. Abstract

As we become increasingly cyber-connected, we will need assistants that can operate in cyberspace. Just as human staffs and assistants enable productivity in the real world, Intelligent Software Assistants will enable productivity in cyberspace. The current Artificial Intelligence based Intelligent Agents are just now showing the promise anticipated. But just as human assistants can be spies, so can these cyber-assistants. This paper explores this duality of software agents. Introduction

Cyber-Spy: Future fact or pure fiction?

The Special Forces team carefully makes their way toward the objective. The target they are closing is not an ammunition depot or a critical Coalition Command Center. It is a forgotten computer switching station used primarily for maintenance. Arriving undetected, they prepare their combat package, a specially developed sequence of digital code called a mobile software agent. The connection is made, digital communication is established, and the software agent is inserted on the switching station server. The Special Forces team stealthily extracts, leaving no trace of their attack.

Meanwhile, the injected computer code waits until the human teams are well clear, then extracts, decompresses, and reconstitutes itself for action. Its mission.... Espionage! ..... This digital 007 is designed to get combat critical information on the coalition cyberspace, and leave time delayed software viruses. Moving undetected through the host information infrastructure, it gathers information, and deploys delayed acting digital bombs, set not to destroy but to confuse and deceive the host combat commanders.

With its critical missions completed, the mobile software agent prepares for extraction. Moving to a predetermined remote location for pickup, it decomposes, compresses, and waits. The Special Forces team arrives, establishes the digital connection and extracts the cyber-spy.

The Coalition information infrastructure has been attacked, capabilities compromised, and prepared for failure at a critical moment .....

Background:

The information age is adding a new dimension to warfare - Information Warfare. Dispersed, digitally webbed and linked combat units promise to mass combat effects better, faster, with more precision, and with less risk. When fused with digital all-source intelligence, Information Warfare promises the future combat commander nearly one hundred percent situation awareness of friendly and opposition forces. This total situation awareness would have the effect of digitally lifting Clausewitz's proverbial "Fog of War". To set the context for discussing the use of software agents as evolving intelligence resources, this paper is divided into five parts.

National Intelligence: an Executive Overview: A brief discussion of the current National Intelligence Community and the Intelligence Cycle. The frame work of all intelligence.

Information Warfare: The Revolution in Military Affairs Presents the Joint Services commitment and vision for future warfare with its accompanying Revolution in Military Affairs.

Espionage: Military Doctrine The stage for discussion of mobile Software Agents is completed with a brief discussion of military doctrine on espionage and intelligence.

Software Agents: Intelligent Cyberspace Assistant and cyberspies Describes the current capabilities and projects the future for Software agents as trusted cyber assistants.

Mobile Intelligent Agent Patrols: Protecting the Information Infrastructure Discuses protection of cyberspace, and makes recommendations for future development National Intelligence: an Executive Overview

The goal of espionage is still intelligence

The Intelligence Cycle:

Raw information is seldom intelligence. In order for information to be true intelligence it must be part of the Intelligence Cycle. This cycle has the following steps:

The Commander (user/customer) generates a need or request to the collection authority

The collection authority combines and coordinates all requests and tasks collection assets

Raw information is collected from reliable resources

Raw source information is processed to a form useable by an Intelligence Analysts

Processed information is analyzed and combined to form Intelligence

The analyzed Intelligence is distributed properly to the Commander (user/customer)

The United States Intelligence Community:

The US Intelligence Community, Headed by the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) is composed of thirteen agencies. Together they are responsible for National Intelligence and the Intelligence Cycle. Some of the more recognized of these are: the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, National Imaging and Mapping Agency, and the National Reconnaissance Office. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also has some specific responsibilities for counter intelligence.

National Security Agency (NSA)

In the mission statement of the National Security Agency is the following:

"The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is responsible for the centralized coordination, direction, and performance of highly specialized technical functions in support of U.S. Government activities to protect U.S. communications and produce foreign intelligence information"

The NSA, by their mission statement, tends to be a technology based Intelligence resource. They are also responsible for the security of our communications systems.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

The mission statement of the Central Intelligence Agency is:

"We support the President, the National Security Council, and all who make and execute US national security policy by:

Providing accurate, evidence-based, comprehensive, and timely foreign intelligence related to national security; and

Conducting counterintelligence activities, special activities, and other functions related to foreign intelligence and national security as directed by the President."

The CIA, in addition to a technical intelligence collection and analysis, maintains the capability to do intelligence operations.

National Imaging and Mapping Agency (NIMA)

The mission of the National Imaging and Mapping Agency is: "NIMA guarantees the information edge: ready access to the worlds imagery, imagery intelligence, and geospatial information"

National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)

The purpose of National Reconnaissance Office is:

"The NRO designs, builds and operates the nation's reconnaissance satellites. NRO products, provided to an expanding list of customers like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Department of Defense (DoD), can warn of potential trouble spots around the world, help plan military operations, and monitor the environment."

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

The mission of the Federal Bureau of Investigation with respect to intelligence is primarily counter-intelligence. They catch spies in this country before they can damage national security.

Military Intelligence

The Department of Defense Intelligence Elements are eight of the thirteen members of the US Intelligence Community. Their focus is upon national defense intelligence support to military commanders.

Military intelligence is analyzed collected information that will give a Combat Commander leverage over an adversary. It invokes the Intelligence Cycle of the national intelligence community. The collection of information can be from many sources. Some of these are: human informants, photo surveillance, and electrical signal interception. In the past this collection was tasked to human collectors and remote sensors.

There is a hierarchical National Intelligence Community with National Security responsibility for espionage and intelligence from all sources and in all forms. As our national interest evolves and the American way of war changes, so will the methods for espionage. What are the joint services visions of future warfare? Is there now a Revolution in Military Affairs?

Information Warfare: The Revolution in Military Affairs

The American way of war is again changing. As the industrial age matures into the information age, we are experiencing a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). This is well summerized by the then Secretary of Defense:

"We live in an age that is driven by information. Technological breakthroughs . . . are changing the face of war and how we prepare for war." --William Perry, Secretary of Defense

The significance of Information Warfare and the current revolution in military affairs we now face is well stated in a 1996 RAND corporation study Strategic Information Warfare: A New Perspective. I quote from the Summary:

"Information warfare (IW) represents a rapidly evolving and, as yet, imprecisely defined field of growing interest for defense planners and policymakers. The source of both the interest and the imprecision in this field is the so-called information revolution--led by the ongoing rapid evolution of cyberspace, microcomputers, and associated information technologies. The U.S. defense establishment, like U.S. society as a whole, is moving rapidly to take advantage of the new opportunities presented by these changes. At the same time, current and potential U.S. adversaries (and allies) are also looking to exploit the evolving global information infrastructure and associated technologies for military purposes."

Science and Technology: Investment in the future

The Department of Defense, (Science & Technology and Planning) is investing $2.445 billion across the future years defense plans (FYDP) in twenty six Information Systems Technology Defense Technology Objectives (DTO's). Of this, $558 million is in the budget for FY98. This represents a serious investment in the future of information systems warfare.

Service Battle-Labs: Future Combat Vision and Experimentation In addition to the investment in research and science & technology, individual Service Components of DOD have invested in future warfare via their battle-labs. A brief summary of each follows.

Joint Battle Labs

The Joint Battle Labs investigate and focus on Joint Service future warfare and implementing the JCS vision document Joint Vision 2010.

Army

The Army has two major future warfare development programs. Force XXI in the near term and the Army After Next in the far term. The Army maintains Army Battle Labs to support the development of its future combat power The Army's Commitment to the digital battlespace is the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below, FBCB2 program, the successor to its Applique' developmental digital battlefield program.

Navy

The Navy's investment in battle experimentation Started in FY 97 with the Fleet Battle Experiments (FBE's). Coordinated with the Marine Corps' Sea Dragon process, they are proving the Navy's-Marine Corps team articulation of Joint Vision 2010 in Forward...From the Sea: Any Time, Any Where The centerpiece of information warfare for naval forces is the Network-Centric Warfare concept of massing combat effects from distributed platforms in the worlds littorals. Copernicus ... Forward C4I for the 21st Century defines the Navy Vision for the future naval realization of the digital information battlespace described in Joint Vision 2010

Marine Corps

The Marines Corps Warfighting Lab (MCWL) Sea Dragon is a five year plan for concept based battle experimentation. Focussing on Ship to Objective Maneuver in an extended littoral battlespace, it enhances core marine capabilities with technology and new warfighting concepts. Of great concern is the minimization or elimination of the "strategic pause" accompanying amphibious operations during the traditional build-up to combat power.

Hunter Warrior, the first of three major phases, experimented with a small force of digitally enabled light teams against a far larger heavy mechanized force (the Seventh Marines). Their unparalleled success was due in part to the vastly superior Command, Control, Communications Computers Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR). Significant aspects of the implementation the experimental command environment will require the use of Software Agents.

Air Force

The Airforce supports the development of Aero-Space technologies for future warfare. Their articulation of Joint Vision 2010 is Global Engagement. The concept relies very heavily on technology and continental power projection of combat effects. The Airforce defines their future vision as follows:

"Global Engagement: A Vision for the 21st Century Air Force flows from the National Security Strategy and is our continuing commitment to provide America the air and space capabilities required to deter, fight and win. This vision is grounded in the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff concept of how we will fight in the early 21st Century - Joint Vision 2010. Moreover, it embodies our belief that in the 21st Century, the strategic instrument of choice will be air and space power."

As can be seen from the Joint Services' vision and future warfare development programs, all are committed to Information Warfare and the Cyber-battlespace it entails. Will this new battlespace be targeted for espionage? Does military doctrine consistently call for Intelligence and spies? Espionage: Military Doctrine

Early military doctrine on intelligence and secret agents (spies)

Sun Tzu

The use of espionage by military commanders is certainly not new. In 400 BC, The famous Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu wrote an entire chapter on the use of spies in his still studied Art of War. He concludes Chapter Thirteen, his final chapter, as follows:

"Hence it is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for purposes of spying and thereby they achieve great results. Spies are a most important element in war, because on them depends an army's ability to maneuver."

In fact, Sun Tzu was such a proponent of deception, movement, and surprise that he believed the best commanders could win wars without ever engaging the enemy in actual combat.

Clausewitz

The renowned nineteenth century military theorist Karl Von Clausewitz had a different perspective on intelligence. In book one chapter six (Intelligence in War) of his On War, he appears to admonish strongly against the use of intelligence. He warns the commander to trust in his own judgement and that:

"... most intelligence is false, and the effect of war is to multiply lies and inaccuracies".

At first this appears to be encouragement to ignore leveraging information about the enemy. It is only later that we see he is really referring here to raw reports not analyzed information. Confirming this, he later calls for careful analysis of collected information, stating:

"This difficulty of accurate recognition constitutes one of the most serious sources of friction in war, making things appear entirely different from what one had expected."

Much of his methods describe massing decisive force at the enemy's "center of gravity". This is only possible if the commander has accurate, timely, and detailed analyses of information on the enemy. Current Military Doctrine on Intelligence

Joint Chiefs of Staff

In introducing Joint Pub 2-0 , Joint Doctrine for Intelligence Support to Operations (Adobe Acrobat reader required) the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says quote:

"Intelligence plays a vital role in the conduct of successful joint operations. Proper deployment of collection and analysis assets is essential if joint force commanders are to gain and maintain intelligence dominance of the battlefield. Without this capability, our joint forces will lose the essential advantages of surprise, operational security, and flexibility."

Spying to gain military advantage is here to stay. It has been done in the past and will be done in the future. The methods of choice for collection will change as information warfare digitizes the battlespace. The same Software Assistants that help relieve the Commanders information overload could also be Cyber-spies ... Software Agents corrupted by enemy influence. Software Agents: Intelligent Cyberspace Assistants

Combat Information Overload

The information age and its accompanying revolution in military affairs has dramatically increased the technical capability to collect and present strategic and tactical battle information. All source intelligence fusion combined with tactical decision aids can greatly increase the situation awareness and decrease decision cycles of combat commanders.

But is more information always better? Is it possible for a commander to be overwhelmed with digital awareness, perhaps missing key combat cues?

Recent experiences of the services' battle labs have shown that increasingly, combatant commanders will be placed in combat-information-overload, having to sort through large masses of digital information to find that which is truly combat critical. This information overload must now be pre-processed by a human command staff prior to presentation to the commander. To overcome the digital interactive limitations of humans, a cyber-staff is needed. This new digital staff will need many of the same qualities as human counterparts, but exist in the digital soup of the future battlespace.

Battle Experiments: Different Focus - One Lesson

At one point during the Navy - Marine Corps Hunter Warrior battle experiment, there were over 1000 messages backed up in the combat commanders cue of the JMCIS based Common Operational Picture. All these messages were important, but some were more critical than others. Routing combat information and reports to sorting mailboxes is only a partial solution.

Similarly, during the Army's recent Force XXI digital battlefield experiments, General Hertzog was asked if the information "glass" was half full or half empty. He remarked that he had " two and a half glasses" of information.

The Cyber-Staff:

The need for a personal cyber-staff to help commanders process and analyze the digital battlefield can be filled through the use of digital Intelligent Agents and Trusted Agents. These Artificial Intelligence technologies, developed by the browser based internet community, are not subject to the physical or computational limitations of a human staff. An intelligent software agent, with knowledge of the commander and phase of the operation, could screen the incoming data stream, alerting the commander when something worth interrupting happens.

The Cyber-Spy:

As software agents are given more agency, intelligence,and mobility, steps must be taken to safeguard them from the influences of the adversaries. Just as human staffs are subject to corruption so will software agents.

Intelligent Agents could also play a covert offensive role if introduced into an adversary's cyber battle-space. As the opening fictional story theorizes; the use of the latest generation of mobile software agents to attack an unprepared information infrastructure has potentially damaging results. How well we prepare for this form of intelligence collection and computer attack will determine the validity of the end of the story.

Realizing the great potential and vulnerability of the National Information Infrastructure, the Department of Defense has a significant investment in research on Information Systems Technologies. Additionally the National Intelligence Community agencies responsible for military intelligence and counter intelligence have programs to maximize effectiveness in the information age.

Software Agents: Description

Intelligent Software Agents are the current capstone achievement of Artificial Intelligence community. A comprehensive survey for understanding the development, current capability, and future potential is regretfully not yet available online. One good resource is Software Agents edited by Jeffery M. Bradshaw and published by the AAAI and MIT press. It is available for purchase online from Barnes and Noble. A review by UMBC of this and other publications introducing Software Agents is available on the internet.

Software Agents: A definition by Bradshaw in Software Agents

"A software entity which functions continuously and autonomously in a particular environment , often inhabited by other agents and processes".

He includes the following attributes of an agent:

The agent needs continuity and autonomy to:

"Carryout activities in a flexible and intelligent manner that is responsive to changes in the environment without requiring constant human guidance or intervention."

The agent should learn from its experience.

The agent should communicate and cooperate with other agents in the environment.

The agent should be able to move from place to place to carry out its tasking.

Software Agents: A Spatial Representation

A good visualization of the software agent concept is in an IBM white paper (Gilbert et. al. 1995) which defines intelligent agents in terms of three dimensions: intelligence, agency, and mobility. Just as the x, y, and z axis of the Cartesian coordinate system define physical space; intelligence, agency, and mobility define the "space" of intelligent agents. The basic concept of this white paper is summerized by Bradshaw:

Intelligence includes reasoning, learning, and adaptive behavior. The agent should function with respects to the users goals, not simply execute coded commands.

Agency is defined in terms of autonomy and authority. Asynchronous activity is a minimum and representative interaction with data, applications, services and other agents is desired.

Mobility is "the degree to which agents themselves travel through the network." Two categories of mobile agent are presented; mobile scripts and mobile objects.

1. Mobile scripts "may be composed on one machine and shipped to another for execution." 2. Mobile objects are "transported from one machine to another in the middle of execution, and carrying state and data with them."

Of all the software agent technologies, mobile objects have the greatest potential as cyber-spies.

Software Agency Performance Predictions: A Note of Caution

Bradshaw humorously points out the danger in producing a "once and for all" definition of agent-hood with the following warning:

"One persons intelligent agent is another persons smart object; and today's smart object is tomorrows dumb program."

He acknowledges the general disappointment with past over-zealous predictions of the artificial intelligence community, and attributes this to tendency of over enthusiastic developers to anthromorphize their software and then claim this makes them intelligent.

Software Agents: The Pull from the Future Bradshaw cites three trends in information technology, which will accelerate the draw to software agent technology.

1. The need to simplify distributed computing.

2. Incorporating agents as resource managers.

3. Overcoming user interface problems.

All three trends apply equally well to the national information infrastructure and the information warfare infrastructure.

Bradshaw concludes his section on Why Software Agents, buy describing a trend toward agent enabled system architectures with the prediction:

"Ultimately all data will reside in the knowledge soup with assistant agents interacting with resource management agents in the background. This will give the user unprecedented levels of functionality. In such an environment, individuals and groups would no longer be forced to manage a passive collection of disparate documents to get something done."

This is precisely a solution to the combat information overload problem in future information warfare. This also represents a future threat. Hostile Software agents could compromise the cyber-environment Software Agents: examples of current technologies

Some representative examples of the current state of software agent development are now presented. I have arbitrarily divided them into five categories: productivity, self improvement, connectivity, intelligent search agents, and entertainment. Their inclusion does not constitute a product endorsement. All have Internet links to allow further online research.

Productivity

"Clippit" the Microsoft Office 97 office assistant (the animated paper-clip) The main focus of this application is to overcome user interface problems. This assistant (when activated) sits at the side of the digital desktop monitoring the actions of the user. When an action is called the assistant will appear to perform the action. One feature of this intelligent agent uses Natural Language Processing to access the online help feature. The user is asked "what do you want to do?" After typing the desired action into the dialog box, the assistant returns a list of functions that it will help you do. Upon selecting a function the software assistant walks the user through the action. The software assistant also informs the user when an illegal action has been attempted, avoiding the terse unintelligible error messages of most system applications. Finally, if the office assistant senses the user is doing something the hard way, it will pop up and offer a short cut.

Clippit meets some of the requirements of an intelligent agent: it senses the environment, acts for goals of the user, and exhibits some learning behavior. IBM ViaVoice Gold Continuous Speech Recognition. This software agent is also focussed on interface simplification; the challenging goal of directly converting speech into type.

I found this application well suited to the task. In fact, much of this paper was prepared with its help. After training the application it was better than 95% accurate. And since it learns from its mistakes it continues to improve. My raw ability to input text went from twenty words per minute to about seventy five. I found the application able to convert my words directly to text faster than I could craft them. (No excuses now)

The main draw back is the system resources required. Its minimum requirements are a Pentium 150 MMX and 32 MB of RAM.

This application certainly meets the tests of software agency. One thing it does not do is use context sensitive processing, which could enhance its utility.

Self Improvement

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. The purpose of this program is to improve the users keyboard skills.

The program first tests the users keyboard skills. It then presents a course of instruction to improve the weaknesses noted. The application periodically offers feedback and tailors practice to match the rate of improvement. It includes standard classroom style instruction and entertainment orientated accuracy and speed drills disguises as games.The program enrolls multi users and keeps track of each users progress and ability profile. The approach seems to work; with casual use, this 43 year old transformed hunt-and-peck skills to about 25 words per minute of touch-typing.

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing is an artificial intelligence intelligent tutorial. This application appears to lack agency, a requirement for classification as a software agent. additionally it does not interact with other applications, and is mobile only in the sense that online internet help is available.

Connectivity

This area has been the most fertile for the development of software agents. In particular the browser community has the goal of making remote procedure calling on diverse paltforms and operating systems possible. Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are well known examples. These applications are the original software agents. They set the stage for the distributed cyber environment. "Browser Based" has become a synanym for connectivity

Another connectivity example for the Macintosh is NetBots. The use of these virtual agents requires more computer knowledge, but they are much more powerful. The NetBots self described capabilities are:

"These are the droids you've been looking for! NetBots is a Macintosh Internet utility that lets you send virtual "agents" out on the Internet. These agents can do things like monitor a web page for updates, let you know when a user is online, and much more. The bots can signal you with an alert or can execute any AppleScript."

Are NetBots the Cyber-Private Investigator or Commercial Cyber Spies? They certainly allow some users to collect information on other users without their knowledge.

Intelligent Search Agents

The internet is miles wide and, in places, only inches deep. A comprehensive search for information resources is a serious challenge for the human user. To help, some super-search engines are available online.

Ask Jeeves is an example. This application prompts the users for a question and then offers some solutions based on some basic natural language processing. It then simultaneously hits many of the commercial engines and evaluates their responses.

Ask Jeeves is a free service. Examples of other super-searchers available for purchase online are; WebMate, DVINA, and Browser Buddy. Most of these offer automatic fetching, news group maintenance, and and URL organization. A more focussed example of information resource monitoring and organization is WARREN, an Intelligent Agent for Financial Portfolio Management

For more reviews and information on these resources visit the Carnegie Mellon University Intelligent Agents Homegpage.

These applications continue to pioneer the capabilities of software agents. This catagory of software agents is particularly well suited to the collection of open source intelligence. Sometimes, portions of a project or capability are unclassified. These super-searchers can be tasked with assembling the unclassified piesces, which may in the whole, reveal more than intended.

Entertainment

There are many examples in this category. For the common user the games they use demand the most of their system resources. It should be no surprise that some gaming engines employ artificial intelligence technologies online, in distributed cross-platform connectivity. Additionally, some producers offer virtual environments where the user can join a battle in progress on the net.

Janes Combat simulations is an example. Want to fly the Apache Longbow at Fort Irwin or Azerbaijan against the latest Russian Weapons? This system imports US geological survey maps and the weapons systems parameters found in Janes Information Group. Their Advertisement reads"

"Jane's Combat Simulations proudly presents Longbow 2, the cutting-edge sequel to 1996's universally acclaimed Flight Sim of the Year. An all-new graphics engine, combined with a host of innovative new multi-player features, multiple aircraft types and dynamic campaigns, delivers the ultimate helicopter combat experience. "

Janes further quotes the television production "60 Minutes" as saying:

"Janes is the closest thing to a civilian intelligence agency"

How much, if any, of our new platform capability does this compromise? Are some of our new systems so good that we want adversaries to see the capability? Will virtual combat gaming environments with the accuracy, connectivity, realism, and user tailorable scenarios of this application reduce the need to spy?

Mobile Software Agents: applications for the future One dimension of software agents not yet well developed is mobility. The internet agent applications now fielded all have a telemetry leash, tying them to the user's computer. This process is termed Remote Procedure Calling or RPC. The agent really resides in the host computer and calls authorized procedures in others.

In the final chapter of Bradshaw's Software Agents, James White describes a new concept, Remote Programming or RP. General Magic is doing research and application development in this area using their Telescript technology. In remote programming, code is shipped for execution from the user to the host. Mobile scripts such as Java and ActiveX now offer a rudimentary version of this capability.

A further increase in mobility and agency intelligence is fielded in mobile objects. Mobile objects no longer require the telemetry leash to intelligently function. They are the first true agents that actually transport themselves in tact free from the user's computer. General Magic is developing mobile object applications.

The fictional cyberspy described at the beginning of this paper is just such an agent. A mobile object disguised in a "Wrapper" can fool unprepared host computer security systems and operate at will. Cyber-Spy: Future Fact Mobile Intelligent Agent Patrols: Protecting the Information Infrastructure Computer Attack: Real Problem or Hype?

In an article by a Richard Lardner and Pamela Hess in Defense Information and Electronics Report, recent hacker activity against the Department of Defense Information System is summarized. Additionally, Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre is quoted as acknowledging

"DOD has undertaken several exercises that have confirmed our vulnerability to computer attack in the future".

Protection of the Information Infrastructure: Recommendations for the Future How do we protect the information infrastructure? Two approaches are possible. One uses a biological template and the other a law enforcement model. In the biological model, the information infrastructure is analogous to a complex organism. In this concept, mobile software agents act as a cyber-immune system, circulating through the "knowledge soup". When hostile agents or attacks are recognized, they report the attacks and destroy the invading digital code.

The law enforcement concept is very similar. Here, cyberspace is treated like a diverse neighborhood with different zones of activity. Mobile software agents patrol the Cyber-City, watching for dangerous or illegal digital activity. When nonstandard activity is detected they have a tiered response depending on the severity of the act.

1. Allow the activity to continue but warn of danger.

2. Stop the code execution and arrest its mobility.

3. Terminate the hostile agent and try to limit the damage. Both of these Information Infrastructure protection models require three things.

1. Standards for digital interactive behavior.

2. General monitoring of the whole with concentrated monitoring of critical areas.

3. Enforcement actions for compromising digital behavior.

In Chapter two, of Bradshaw's survey on Software Agents, Norman in his "How might people interact with agents?" articulates some strong concerns for computer safety and privacy. He asks:

"How does one guard against error, maliciousness (as in the spread of computer viruses), and deliberate attempt to pry and probe in one's personal records?" Norman further calls for serious consideration for the privacy of the user. He says;

"Privacy and confidentiality of actions will be among the major issues confronting the use of intelligent agents in our future of a fully interconnected, fully communicating society. We must address those issues now, not just in the technical sense, but in the local, national, and global legal systems."

We are at the beginning of agent-enabled distributed computing. The use of mobile agents and remote programming offers some real performance benefits over the current remote procedure calling protocol. However, there are some real concerns for future security and computer safety. If we prepare now for this technology we can ensure standards of software-agent behavior and interaction are set, and consequences for non-compliance deter compromising behavior.

Cyber-Spy Future fact: The sequel

The Special Forces team crosses out of the Coalition territory back into their own area. The cyber-spy they so stealthily inserted and later extracted was amazingly successful by all indications ... But was it? I n fact the Coalition information infrastructure of the attacked cyberspace was prepared. intelligent agent sentries, had been posted at the computer switching terminal server ports. Other mobile intelligent agents patrolled Coalition cyber-space, communicating with each other and the software-sentries on the ports. Having learned the normal activity of the system, they detected the abnormal movement and procedure calls of the cyber-spy. Alerting the Coalition Commander of the attack, they arrested the mobility of the cyber-spy and brought it to a digital-safe-area where its true purpose and missions were extracted.

The Coalition Commander, realizing the advantage of a miss-informed adversary, ordered the cyber-spy reconstituted with false information and escorted by the mobile intelligent agent patrols to the extraction point.

This cyber-spy, now extracted by Special Forces teams in fact carries no compromising information, and did not weaken the coalition information infrastructure.

The only information the cyber-spy now carries is dis-information, which will aid the coalition in bringing about an early successful conclusion of hostilities. Espionage in Information Warfare: Shape, Respond, and Prepare Now