funsec mailing list archives

Re: Hazard a Guess: Fortune 500 or al-Qaeda?


From: "Dude VanWinkle" <dudevanwinkle () gmail com>
Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 13:35:23 -0400

On 5/12/06, Fergie <fergdawg () netzero net> wrote:
n an interesting follow-up to yesterday's story about how
traffic analysis can be deceptive in and of itself, this comes
to us via Defense Tech:

[snip]

People working together on projects tend to interact in fairly predictable ways -- whether that project is installing a new 
computer system, or blowing up a building. So looking only at the links between people won't tell you much about what those 
folks are up to. At times, the links can be rather deceptive, in fact. Especially if your data set is huge, like the NSA's 
ginormous database of phone records. Other information is needed, to fill in the gaps.

Here's an example, [above]. Can you tell which cluster is from a Fortune 500 company, and which one is from Al-Qaeda? 
Network analysis guru Valdis Krebs shows this slide to corporate and government audiences. Their answers are usually pretty 
scattershot. Take your guesses in the comments section. Valdis will be back later on with the right answer.

[snip]

Link:
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002402.html

- ferg

p.s. I'll bet the Fortune 500 is the one on the left (in the image).

The one on the left is too interconnected to be a group of cells. The
one on the right has nodes with only one link. That would make me
guess the same Fortune 500 on the left, AlQ on the right.


Valdis: When are you coming back with the answer dammit!

-JP

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