Network security management with intelligent agents

Multi-agent systems technology can be useful for efficiently designing and maintaining secure networks. Indeed, networks evolve at a rapid pace in terms of the number and type of components and user access queries as well as intrusion possibilities. Features such as autonomy, adaptability and flexibility of the "intelligent" agent paradigm allow the managing of network evolution in a controlled way. The focus of our work concerns one critical security management issue, that is, intrusion detection. We propose a novel approach called IA-NSM (intelligent agents for network security management) for intrusion detection using intelligent agent technology. IA-NSM provides a flexible integration of a multi-agent system in a classical networked environment to enhance its protection level against inherent attacks.