172 Chapter 5 Mobile Agent Security
A malicious agency might now intend to influence the agent in such a way
that its airfare will be the lowest. Therefore, the agency’s first step is to spy out
the agent’s data. It is unlikely that the agent will communicate this informa-
tion voluntarily, so the agency will access the agent’s data in an unauthorized
way. The obvious problem with spying out data is that it is completely invis-
ible to the agent. The agent does not realize that some of its data has been
stolen. This type of attack seems to make it completely unrealistic that mobile
agents can carry any type of secure, sensitive information, such as a secret
or private key of its owner. Besides price information, the malicious agency
might also spy