  An ever increasing number of battlefield devices that are capable of
collecting, processing, storing, and communicating information are rapidly
becoming interconnected. The staggering number of connected devices on the
battlefield greatly increases the possibility that an adversary could find ways
to exploit hardware or software vulnerabilities, degrading or denying
Warfighters the assured and secure use of those devices. Autonomous software
agents will become necessities to manage, defend, and react to cyber threats in
the future battlespace. The number of connected devices increases
disproportionately to the number of cyber experts that could be available
within an operational environment. In this paper, an autonomous agent
capability and a scenario of how it could operate are proposed. The goal of
developing such capability is to increase the security posture of the Internet
of Battlefield Things and meet the challenges of an increasingly complex
battlefield. This paper describes an illustrative scenario in a notional use
case and discusses the challenges associated with such autonomous agents. We
conclude by offering ideas for potential research into developing autonomous
agents suitable for cyber defense in a battlefield environment.
