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Applications of Social Network Analysis to Managing the Investigation of Suspicious Activities in Social Media Platforms

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Advances in Cybersecurity Management

Abstract

Social media networks have grown rapidly as a key platform for communicating and sharing information. Millions of users are actively accessing its features and making connections. Normally, the only point of analyzing user authentication is for scrutinizing online details and posted information; however, this is sometimes morphed by cyber criminals to support fraudulent activities. Cybercrimes in online platforms also are moving toward fraud by continuously monitoring for open profiles, making friends, offering opportunities, and asking for favors. Examples include cash deposits, lotteries, click baiting, fake job offers, fraudulent fundraising, post re-sharing, card details sharing, and software downloads. Vulnerable nodes must be located to identify criminals’ details and account information. Social network analysis (SNA) finds such links using concepts from network and graph theory. SNA is well suited for the identification of friends involved in cyber fraud, epidemic transmission analysis, radicalization posts, and similar crimes. SNA-based approaches are presented that many be useful for managing efforts aimed at identifying suspicious and criminal activities in social media platforms.

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Rawat, R., Mahor, V., Chirgaiya, S., Rathore, A.S. (2021). Applications of Social Network Analysis to Managing the Investigation of Suspicious Activities in Social Media Platforms. In: Daimi, K., Peoples, C. (eds) Advances in Cybersecurity Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71381-2_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71381-2_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-71380-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-71381-2

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