Using Social Media for Global Security

Essential reading for cybersecurity professionals, security analysts, policy experts, decision-makers, activists, and law enforcement!

During the Arab Spring movements, the world witnessed the power of social media to dramatically shape events. Now this timely book shows government decision-makers, security analysts, and activists how to use the social world to improve security locally, nationally, and globally--and cost-effectively. Authored by two technology/behavior/security professionals, Using Social Media for Global Security offers pages of instruction and detail on cutting-edge social media technologies, analyzing social media data, and building crowdsourcing platforms.

The book teaches how to collect social media data and analyze it to map the social networks of terrorists and sex traffickers, and forecast attacks and famines. You will learn how to coalesce communities through social media to help catch murderers, coordinate disaster relief, and collect intelligence about drug smuggling from hard-to-reach areas. Also highlighting dramatic case studies drawn from the headlines, this crucial book is a must-read.
* Illustrates linguistic, correlative, and network analysis of OSINT
* Examines using crowdsourcing technologies to work and engage with populations globally to solve security problems
* Explores how to ethically deal with social media data without compromising people's rights to privacy and freedom of expression
* Shows activists fighting against oppressive regimes how they can protect their identities online

If you're responsible for maintaining local, national or global security, you'll want to read Using Social Media for Global Security.

"Social Media mapping is the new achilles–heel of associations and thoughts, which were formerly unseen. Gupta and Brooks are without question the master of this cartography"

David Tinsley, Former U.S Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent. CEO, 5 Stones Intelligence

"A thought–provoking "how–to" book on leveraging and exploiting social media across military operations. Without these insights, today's leaders will be left in the dark while today's generation passes them by."

John N. Sims, Former U.S. Air Force Special Operations Commander. CEO, enkidu7

How an agent for change can be a force for security

During the Arab Spring movements, the world witnessed the power of social media to dramatically shape events. Now this timely book shows government decision–makers, security analysts, and activists how to use the social world to improve security locally, nationally, globally and cost–effectively.

You'll discover how to collect social media data and analyze it to map the social networks of terrorists and sex traffickers, or to forecast attacks and famines. You will learn how to coalesce communities through social media to help catch murderers, coordinate disaster relief, and collect intelligence about drug smuggling from hard–to–reach areas. With its dramatic case studies pulled from the headlines, this crucial book is a must–read.

• Illustrates linguistic, correlative, and network analysis of OSINT
• Examines the use of crowdsourcing technologies to work with and engage populations globally to solve security problems
• Explores how to ethically deal with social media data without compromising people's rights to privacy and freedom of expression
• Shows activists fighting against oppressive regimes how to protect their identities online

Visit the companion website at www.wiley.com/go/usingsocialmediaforglobalsecurity for updates, data files referenced in the book, and additional information

Introduction xxv

Part I Understanding the Influence of Social Media Globally 1

Chapter 1 Understanding Social Media s Impact on Global Security 3

Organizing Revolutions and Riots 4

Arab Spring 4

London Riots 8

Recruiting Terrorists and Encouraging Attacks 10

Glorifying and Promoting Gang Culture and Violence 11

Acknowledging Social Media s Impact 13

Summary 14

Chapter 2 Understanding Global Social Media Use 17

Defining Social Media 17

Grasping Social Media s Popularity and Appeal 19

Growth of Social Media 19

Philosophy Behind Social Media 20

Social Media Technologies 22

Platform Types 22

Device Types 29

Social Media Use Differences Globally 34

North America (U.S. and Canada) 35

Latin America 36

Europe 36

East Asia 37

Southeast Asia 38

South Asia 38

Middle East 38

Africa 39

Summary 40

Part II Analyzing Social Media Data to Solve Security Problems 43

Chapter 3 Introduction to Social Media Analytics 45

Defining Analysis 45

What Is Analysis 46

Limits of Analysis 46

What Is Not Analysis 47

Analysis Overview 48

Preliminary Procedure 49

The Analytical Processes 52

Analysis Dos and Don ts 58

Analysis Methodologies 61

Variables 62

Methodologies in this Book 63

Methodologies Not in this Book 68

Summary 69

Chapter 4 Collecting and Managing Social Media Data 71

Understanding Social Media Data 71

Determining Collection Needs 74

What Data Will Solve the Problem? 75

How Much Data Is Enough? 76

Who Has the Data? 79

Will They Give the Data? 82

Collecting the Data 84

Data Framework 85

APIs 85

RSS Feeds 89

Crawlers 89

Filtering the Data 91

Storing and Managing the Data 93

Relational Databases 94

Non–Relational Databases 96

Third–Party Solutions 99

Summary 102

Chapter 5 Mapping and Analyzing Social Networks 105

Key Concepts and Defi nitions 105

Elements of Social Networks 107

Infl uence and Memes in Social Networks 110

Algorithms in SNA 111

Choosing SNA Software Program 113

First Example Identify Influencers 115

Creating the Data Set 116

Visually Map the Network 121

Analyze the Network 124

Second Example Identify Infl uencers 130

Create the Data Set 131

Visually Map the Network 131

Analyze the Network 132

Third Example Determine Top Memes 134

Create the Data Set 135

Analyze the Network 136

Summary 137

Chapter 6 Understanding and Forecasting Events 141

Introduction to Analyzing Events 141

Social Media Data as Intelligence 142

Monitoring Attacks through Social Media 143

Understanding Forecasting 145

Forecasting vs. Predicting 146

Forecasting Properly 147

Conducting Language and Sentiment Analysis 149

Determining Authorship 151

Tracking and Forecasting the Behavior of Rioting Violent Crowds 156

Correlation and Regression Analysis 161

Creating Tools to Provide Early Warnings for Famines with Artificial Data 163

Volumetric Analysis 170

Creating Tools to Provide Early Warnings for Famines with Artificial Data 170

Summary 174

Part III Crowdsourcing Intelligence, Solutions, and Influence 177

Chapter 7 Introduction to Crowdsourcing 179

What Is Crowdsourcing? 179

Defining Crowdsourcing and Its Relevance 180

Bolstering Crowdsourcing with Social Media 182

Why Use Crowdsourcing? 184

Solve More Problems and Get More Information 184

Work Quickly 185

Work Discreetly 186

Save Money 186

Relevant Examples of Crowdsourcing 187

OpenIDEO 187

DARPA Shredder Challenge 189

GCHQ Spy Recruitment Challenge 190

M–Farm 190

Knowing When to Crowdsource 191

When to Crowdsource 191

When Not to Crowdsource 193

Summary 194

Chapter 8 Building and Running Crowdsourcing Platforms 197

Overview of the Process 197

Select Objective and Scope 199

Refine Problem to Establish Clear Objective 199

Decide the Scope of the Platform 199

Analyze the Target Audience and Media Environment 200

Determine the Target Audience 201

Analyze the Target Audience 203

Analyze the Media Environment 204

Get the Information to Do the Analyses 205

Design the Platform 206

Determine the Platform s Look and Feel 207

Determine the Platform s Incentive Structure 209

Build the Platform 214

Market the Platform 215

Manage the Platform 218

Measure the Platform s Performance 220

Create and Choose Metrics 220

Collect Data to Populate Metrics 221

Wash, Rinse, Repeat 222

Summary 222

Chapter 9 Crowdsourcing Intelligence 225

Understanding the Scope of Crowdsourced Intelligence 225

Uniqueness of Crowdsourced Intelligence 226

Direct and Indirect Crowdsourced Intelligence 226

Appreciating the Limits of Crowdsourcing Intelligence 228

Uncooperative Target Audience 228

Higher Risk for Participants 229

Misinformation 229

Misinterpretation 230

Hawthorne Effect 231

Tweaking the Process for Intelligence Collection Platforms 231

Collect Intelligence from Hard–to–Reach Areas through SMS 233

Define Objective and Scope 233

Analyze the Target Audience and Media Environment 234

Design the Platform 236

Build the Platform 238

Market the Platform 241

Manage the Platform 241

Measure the Platform s Performance 241

Wash, Rinse, Repeat 242

Collect Intelligence from the Community for Law Enforcement 242

Define Objective and Scope 243

Analyze the Target Audience and Media Environment 244

Design the Platform 245

Build the Platform 250

Market the Platform 251

Manage the Platform 251

Measure the Platform s Performance 252

Wash, Rinse, Repeat 252

Collect Intelligence to Bolster Disaster Relief 253

Define Objective and Scope 254

Analyze the Target Audience and Media Environment 254

Design the Platform 255

Build the Platform 257

Market the Platform 260

Manage the Platform 261

Measure the Platform s Performance 262

Wash, Rinse, Repeat 263

Summary 263

Chapter 10 Crowdsourcing Solutions 265

Understanding the Scope of Crowdsourced Solutions 265

Formulating the Right Type of Problem 266

Formulating the Right Crowdsourcing Approach 269

Appreciating the Limits of Crowdsourcing Solutions 274

Unsolvable Problem 274

Incorrect Solutions 274

Adversarial Participants 274

Political Fallout 275

Tweaking the Process for Solution Platforms 275

Crowdsourcing Translations during Disaster Relief 276

Define Objective and Scope 277

Analyze Target Audience and Media Environment 278

Design the Platform 279

Build the Platform 281

Market the Platform 284

Manage the Platform 285

Measure the Platform s Performance 286

Wash, Rinse, Repeat 286

Crowdsource Tools to Identify Antagonistic Actors in Video Feeds 287

Define Objective and Scope 288

Analyze Target Audience and Media Environment 289

Design the Platform 290

Build the Platform 294

Market the Platform 294

Manage the Platform 295

Measure the Platform s Performance 296

Wash,

Ravi Gupta is an entrepreneur who develops and commercializes technologies that use biological principles. He has created social media platforms, data processing algorithms, and crowdsourcing techniques to understand and solve security problems.

Hugh Brooks is a security consultant for government and private clients. With a focus on creativity, he has produced innovative solutions for crowd–driven applications, behavior modeling, mobile health and education, and cyber security.