Link Analysis of Knowledge Derived from Social Media Sources

ABSTRACT: Warfare is being transformed from a closed, state-sponsored affair to distributed terrorist activities enabled by social media. Today"s terrorists are extremely internet savvy. They recruit, organize, seek advice, assistance and material support; and manage their illicit drug trade and money laundering operations using social media. An added benefit for terrorists is that gathering intelligence on social media communications has proven extremely difficult for the U.S. and our allies. To address the unique requirements of converting social media into actionable intelligence, Securboration has assembled a world-class team to develop the Link Analysis Knowledge Environment (LAKE). Securboration will leverage its existing suite of semantics-based content analysis software, and enhance it with algorithms for noise reduction to understand concepts and linkages present within social media data streams. Securboration has also identified a transition path for LAKE that provides for inclusion within the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) Integration Backbone(DIB) at the Joint Inter Agency Task Force South (JIATF-S Truman Annex in Key West FL). BENEFIT: LAKE provides significant benefits to both the public and private sector. In the DoD/Homeland Security public sector, the need for the warfighter is highlighted on a near daily basis (from Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born Muslim cleric who became a leading figure in Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen and was killed September 30, 2011 in a drone strike; to Sami Osmakac the U.S citizen arrested in January 2012 and charged with plotting to attack Tampa-area nightclubs and a sheriff's office with bombs and an assault rifle to avenge wrongs done to Muslims). In both the public and private medical domain, link analysis can prove vital in combatting epidemics and pandemics by identifying social communities that may be exposed. In the private sector, there is significant opportunity for LAKE in the area of business intelligence. For example,"Competitive Link Analysis"enables a business to understand why people are linking to their competitors. Link analysis can also help businesses improve customer retention, cross-sell and up-sell by enabling marketers to identify social communities based on relationships between customers, measure and segment customers based on social influence, and target customers based on changes within their social within their social communities. LAKE also is applicable to stock market analysis, where social media influences trading patterns.