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Intelligent agents - as a modern artificial intelligence concept - are now widely deployed in various software systems. The agent can be defined as a software entity which functions continuously and autonomously in a particular environment, able to carry out activities in a flexible and intelligent manner that is responsive to changes in the environment, and able to learn from its experience. An intrusion detection system can be decomposed into steps where an agent can perform a single or more step. But performance evaluation techniques of their use are still in the early stage. This infancy status holds especially true for agents used in intrusion detection systems (IDS) since they are new to this field. We believe that the two most important factors to measure for a given IDS are the risk time and the detection time. The risk time is the time at which the computer could be under risk of attack since the intrusion is not discovered yet. The smaller the detection time is the smaller the risk time. Thus, as a step towards a complete evaluation strategy, a simple IDS with agents was tested.

This article describes a framework for intrusion detection using agent-based technology. Agents are ideally qualified due to their reactivity, interactivity, autonomy and intelligence. The system discussed is implemented in a TCP/IP LAN (local area network) environment. It represents a step towards a complete multi-agent based system for networking security.