SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADVERSARIAL NETWORKS
Open Access
Author:
Orendovici, Razvan
Graduate Program:
Computer Science and Engineering
Degree:
Master of Science
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
November 14, 2011
Committee Members:
Frank Edward Ritter, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor Frank Edward Ritter, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Keywords:
adversarial networks terrorist adversarial graph theory network theory social network analysis simulations analysis development of networks
Abstract:
This paper presents a new way to monitor and look at adversarial networks through the Adversarial Network Analyzer (ANA) and supporting mathematical calculations. Recent work on social networks has begun to be used in the analysis of adversarial networks and their underlying structure with hopes of detecting and preventing future activity. Adversarial networks are abstracted to be network subgroups that work against the interests of the group studying it. ANA, the software package created by this work, can be a tool for network visualization and a teaching exercise for students in the field of security analysis. It can portray the structure of such networks and allow analysts to find patterns and key players in the network while watching the network evolve to carry out a goal. Finally, this thesis uses output from ANA to study how a simulated adversarial scenario grows in structure. I compare this network against more traditional social networks on standard measures and also analyze the change in time of this network on those same dimensions.
