A mobile agent system providing offer privacy

Abstract

In a shopping mobile agent scenario where the agent, on behalf of its owner, collects prices (offers) from vendors' servers, offer privacy is one of the major security concerns. In this paper, we propose a framework to achieve offer privacy. The framework can be implemented in an e-market environment where an e-market manager plays the role of authority. Based on the framework, a "hash chained group signature" scheme that employs a group signature scheme and a chaining relationship is proposed. The offer privacy can be reversed, with the assistance of the e-market manager, when a server's identity needs to be revealed. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.