Adding X-security to Carrel: security for agent-based healthcare applications

The high growth of Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) in Open Networks with initiatives such as Agentcities1 requires development in many different areas such as scalable and secure agent platforms, location services, directory services, and systems management. In our case we have focused our effort on security for agent systems. The driving force of this paper is provide a practical vision of how security mechanisms could be introduced for multi-agent applications. Our case study for this experiment is Carrel [9]: an Agent-based application in the Organ and Tissue transplant domain. The selection of this application is due to its characteristics as a real scenario and use of high-risk data for example, a study of the 21 most visited health-related web sites on the Internet discovered that personal information provided at many of the sites was being inadvertently leaked for unauthorized persons. These factors indicate to us that Carrel would be a suitable environment in order to test existing security safeguards. Furthermore, we believe that the experience gathered will be useful for other MAS. In order to achieve our purpose we describe the design, architecture and implementation of security elements on MAS for the Carrel System.Postprint (published version

Architecture and negotiation protocols for a smart parking system

Mestrado de dupla diplomação com a UTFPR - Universidade Tecnológica Federal do ParanáSmart City uses emerging technologies to improve citizens’ quality of life. A branch of this topic is the Smart Parking, where the parking system implements intelligent mechanisms to simplify to the searching of parking spots and consequently decrease the traffic of cars. This work proposes an architecture using Multi-Agent System (MAS), enhanced with some holonic systems principles, that is capable to be applied to different range of parking systems, e.g., considering trucks, cars, or bicycles. Being a distributed architecture, a special attention is devoted to study the negotiation protocols that will regulate the behavior of autonomous and cooperative actors in the system, namely drivers and parking spots, during allocation process of parking spots to drivers. For this purpose, the Contract Net Protocol (CNP), English Auction, Dutch Auction and Faratin Auction were the tested, being the CNP the selected protocol for this problem. Also addressing the distributed nature of the system, some efforts were focused on the security of the messages exchanged between the agents was proposed using Secure Socket Layer (SSL). The proposed multi-agent systems architecture was implemented using JADE (Java Agent DEvelopment Framework), which is a FIPA-compliant agent development framework that simplifies the development of agent-based applications. The exchange of messages follows the FIPA-ACL protocol using the CNP protocol for the negotiation. The communication between the agents and the User Interface is performed through the use of Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol

Multi-agent system to assure the logical security of data in distributed information system

The increased availability of information as a whole became an important problem and threat for its security, especially security of sensitive and confidential information and that is why the necessity to assure the security of such data became undeniable. The developers of applications an information systems put more and more stress on the aspect of their security and safety. Development of information systems has to answer more and more to problems connected to federated data sources and problems of heterogeneous distributed information systems. It is necessary to propose the architecture for secure cooperation of such systems. The paper presents the practical application of concepts of multi-agent systems in domain of logical security of data in distributed information systems. The purpose of presented solution is to support the process management of IT project realization based on the software creation methodologies

Bio-Inspired Mechanism For Securing Distributed Networked Component Based Software

Distributed Networked systems and applications are created by composing a complex set of component-based software. These components are subject to continuous upgrade, replacement, and scaling, and also anomaly attacks. These conditions must be monitored and controlled in order to have these behaviors seem normal and routine. Self-regenerative systems are new and software paradigm in survivable system design. Self-regeneration ensures the property that a system must have and cannot be vulnerable to external factors and fail. In order to establish the utility of self-regenerative capability in design of survivable systems, it is important to ensure that a system satisfying the self-regenerative requirement is survivable. Studies have been carried out to build self-regenerative systems using multi agent paradigm in order to ensure network software survivability, and a secure system. In this thesis, the architecture based on distributed concept and cell regeneration system is presented. To ensure that the system satisfy the self-regenerative requirements, the model support and execute its mission in the presence of attacks, by implementing the multi agent system. The concept of an agent provides a convenient and powerful way to describe a complex software entity that is capable of acting with a certain degree of autonomy in order to accomplish tasks on behalf of its user, multiple agent are implemented for robustness. Our model consists of four agents. The first agent will perform the monitoring and detection of any malicious activities by observing behavior of the attack. The second agent will be activated from the action of replications of the component, and the third agent will carry out the prevention of attack. The fourth provide routing management services. Result has been generated by implementing and developing the four agents as a standalone by JADE (java agent development framework)

Modelling of the Internet Computer Protocol Architecture: the Next Generation Blockchain

The Internet Computer Protocol is described as a third-generation blockchain system that aims to provide secure and scalable distributed systems through blockchains and smart contracts. In this position paper, this innovative architecture is introduced and then discussed in view of its modeling and simulation aspects. In fact, a properly defined digital twin of the Internet Computer Protocol could help its design, development, and evaluation in terms of performance and resilience to specific security attacks. To this extent, we propose a multi-level simulation model that follows an agent-based paradigm. The main issues of the modeling and simulation, and the main expected outcomes, are described and discussed

Enhancing secure Tropos to effectively deal with security requirements in the development of multiagent systems

The consideration of security requirements in the development of multi-agent systems is a very difficult task. However, only few approaches have been proposed that try to integrate security issues as internal part of the development process. Amongst them, secure Tropos has been proposed as a structured approach towards the consideration of security issues in the development of multiagent systems. In this paper we enhance secure Tropos by integrating to its stages: (i) a process for selecting amongst alternative architectural styles using as criteria the security requirements of the system; (ii) a pattern-based approach to transform security requirements to design, and (iii) a security attack scenarios approach to test the developed solution. The electronic single assessment process (eSAP) case study is used to illustrate our approach

Safeguarding health data with enhanced accountability and patient awareness

Several factors are driving the transition from paper-based health records to electronic health record systems. In the United States, the adoption rate of electronic health record systems significantly increased after "Meaningful Use" incentive program was started in 2009. While increased use of electronic health record systems could improve the efficiency and quality of healthcare services, it can also lead to a number of security and privacy issues, such as identity theft and healthcare fraud. Such incidents could have negative impact on trustworthiness of electronic health record technology itself and thereby could limit its benefits. In this dissertation, we tackle three challenges that we believe are important to improve the security and privacy in electronic health record systems. Our approach is based on an analysis of real-world incidents, namely theft and misuse of patient identity, unauthorized usage and update of electronic health records, and threats from insiders in healthcare organizations. Our contributions include design and development of a user-centric monitoring agent system that works on behalf of a patient (i.e., an end user) and securely monitors usage of the patient's identity credentials as well as access to her electronic health records. Such a monitoring agent can enhance patient's awareness and control and improve accountability for health records even in a distributed, multi-domain environment, which is typical in an e-healthcare setting. This will reduce the risk and loss caused by misuse of stolen data. In addition to the solution from a patient's perspective, we also propose a secure system architecture that can be used in healthcare organizations to enable robust auditing and management over client devices. This helps us further enhance patients' confidence in secure use of their health data.PhDCommittee Chair: Mustaque Ahamad; Committee Member: Douglas M. Blough; Committee Member: Ling Liu; Committee Member: Mark Braunstein; Committee Member: Wenke Le

Bio-Inspired Mechanism For Securing Distributed Networked Component Based Software

Distributed Networked systems and applications are created by composing a complex set of component-based software. These components are subject to continuous upgrade, replacement, and scaling, and also anomaly attacks. These conditions must be monitored and controlled in order to have these behaviors seem normal and routine. Self-regenerative systems are new and software paradigm in survivable system design. Self-regeneration ensures the property that a system must have and cannot be vulnerable to external factors and fail. In order to establish the utility of self-regenerative capability in design of survivable systems, it is important to ensure that a system satisfying the self-regenerative requirement is survivable. Studies have been carried out to build self-regenerative systems using multi agent paradigm in order to ensure network software survivability, and a secure system. In this thesis, the architecture based on distributed concept and cell regeneration system is presented. To ensure that the system satisfy the self-regenerative requirements, the model support and execute its mission in the presence of attacks, by implementing the multi agent system. The concept of an agent provides a convenient and powerful way to describe a complex software entity that is capable of acting with a certain degree of autonomy in order to accomplish tasks on behalf of its user, multiple agent are implemented for robustness. Our model consists of four agents. The first agent will perform the monitoring and detection of any malicious activities by observing behavior of the attack. The second agent will be activated from the action of replications of the component, and the third agent will carry out the prevention of attack. The fourth provide routing management services. Result has been generated by implementing and developing the four agents as a standalone by JADE (java agent development framework)