MAST – A Mobile Agent-based Security Tool

Marco Carvalho, Thomas Cowin, Niranjan Suri

One of the chief computer security problems is not the long list of viruses and other potential vulnerabilities, but the vast number of systems that continue to be easy prey, as their system administrators or owners simply are not able to keep up with all of the available patches, updates, or needed configuration changes in order to protect them from those known vulnerabilities. Even up-to-date systems could become vulnerable to attacks, due to inappropriate configuration or combined used of applications and services.

Our mobile agent-based security tool (MAST) is designed to bridge this gap, and provide automated methods to make sure that all of the systems in a specific domain or network are secured and up-to-date with all patches and updates. The tool is also designed to check systems for misconfigurations that make them vulnerable. Additionally, this user interface is presented in a domain knowledge model known as a Concept Map that provides a continuous learning experience for the system administrator.

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