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The existence and usage of covert channels in systems of communicating agents poses a significant threat to the confidentiality of information. It is difficult to fully prevent the possibility of covert channels in a system without limiting the communication between its components or negatively affecting its behaviour. However, by developing an understanding of when a covert channel may exist in a given system and which agents are more prone to covert channels than others, approaches for mitigating covert channels can be developed in such a way that they are able to preserve overall system functionality and the communication between its components and with its environment. In this paper, we propose an approach for mitigating covert channels in systems of communicating agents based on an analysis of the potential for communication amongst system agents. First, we propose a mathematical framework for …