BESTNET: Behavior Signature of Terrorist Networks

To succeed against superior resources and technology, modern adversaries typically adopt asymmetric tactics to wage unconventional warfare. Current adversaries organize activities through small covert groups based primarily on existing relationships among family and friends. Identifying the networks of individuals, organizations, activities, places, and resources that constitute these operations presents a significant intelligence challenge. A tool is needed that can rapidly and accurately identify the relationships among the resource components that make up a terrorist network. Aptima is developing the Behavior Signatures of Terrorist Networks (BESTNET) system that will help analysts to identify and track the people, places, activities, and resources most critical to adversarial operations. To achieve high decision accuracy under severe information gaps, BESTNET integrates three technologies developed and empirically validated by Aptima: an adversarial network and mission identification system (NetSTAR) to determine the dynamic state of the hostile operations and their supporting organization; a socio-cultural simulation (SCIPR) to predict the support to hostile organization in the areas of interest; and an organizational performance assessment tool (MOSTTM) to determine the adversarial actors and resources most critical to their operations. BENEFITS: When completed, BESTNET will enhance the adversarial analysis process by reducing the time to develop intelligence estimates, increasing the accuracy of those estimates, and improving the impact of commensurate disruption plans on adversarial operations.