Fighting Terrorism Through Social Network Analysis
In the years following the 9/11 terrorist attack, the debate about the balance between privacy rights and security has flourished. In 2013, The Guardian released a report that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been collecting the phone records of millions of Americans. While many Americans were concerned about this believed violation of privacy, fewer knew exactly what this data was being used for. In a 2013 article titled “How the NSA Uses All Those Verizon Phone Records,” Greg Satell discusses the collection of phone records and the government’s use of network analysis as a method of evaluating and dismantling terrorist groups. In 2002, Valdis Krebs, a network scientist at Orgnet, published a paper on mapping terrorist networks. By identifying two initial suspects and using communication records to analyze common connections, Krebs demonstrated how it was possible to build a map of a terrorist network. After identifying the contacts the initial suspects had in common, Krebs continued to analyze the contacts of those connections, looking for triads within the network. Once a network is mapped, the government can use this information to gain important insights and dismantle the network. From a model, analysis can tell the government who is most central, who has the widest reach, and who has a crucial role as a connector between others.
This article is strongly related to the social network analysis that we have discussed in class, specifically the course’s coverage of triadic closure. When building his network, Krebs used the concept of triadic closure to analyze the suspects’ connections. By looking for closed triads within the network, it was possible for Krebs to determine those with high probabilities of being part of the terrorist cell as someone who has suspected terrorists as mutual friends is more likely to also be a part of the group. It is important to note that without the full data set provided by the phone companies, this analysis could not be done without employing other—possibly more intrusive—methods. Now whether this use for the large data collection justifies the NSA’s actions is a discussion better suited for another time.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2013/06/07/how-the-nsa-uses-all-those-verizon-phone-records/