"AlGORITHMS: Tracking social nets could help find terrorists"

Proxy servers can often shield terror groups from detection on the Internet. Now, increased use of social networks may provide a way to track them down. Look for algorithms that troll social networks searching for illegal activity within two years. R.C.J.


Though still in its formative stages, algorithms could identify communities within social networks to target terrorist cells as easily as customers are tracked by advertising campaigns. By graphing the relationships (black lines) among people (red dots) using sophisticated algorithms, graph theory could trace terrorists back to their lair based on their online interactions. The model could be used to trace Web posts on social networks back to their source by understanding the structure of how the information propagates across the Internet. The model would then work back from current conditions to prior causes. In the process, the technique could uncover entire networks of users of particular products, or even to detect and track terrorist cells.
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