An agent-based vulnerability assessment system intended for tactical digitized networks

(U) Preliminary results, progress to date, and plans to develop CyberSleuth for tactical digitized communications and information networks are reported in this paper. CyberSleuth is a conceptual prototype of an autonomously adaptive agent-based vulnerability assessment system, developed by the USA Army Research Laboratory and its partners, capable of providing continuous protection of resource-constrained tactical-network computing equipment using genetic algorithms, dynamic object mechanisms, and agent technologies. The system has been successfully demonstrated on nonmilitary networks consisting of heterogeneous hardware platforms running disparate operating systems. Technical features of CyberSleuth and procedural issues for its eventual deployment in a tactical network are described and discussed in this paper with special emphasis on its mobility, functionality and integrity.