FIGHTING DARK NETWORKS: USING SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS TO IMPLEMENT THE SPECIAL OPERATIONS TARGETING PROCESS FOR DIRECT AND INDIRECT APPROACHES

Download
Author
Erlacher, Matthew D.
Date
2013-03Advisor
Everton, Sean F.
Denning, Dorothy E.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the United States military has been engaged against transnational networks, a domain for which many of its processes were not designed and are not well-suited. A significant part of the militarys struggle of the last decade of war has been a lack of a framework for understanding and measuring changes in social networks, especially insurgent or terrorist networks known as dark networks. This thesis puts forth an experimental framework called the Special Operations Network Analysis Process, or SONAP, to solve that problem. SONAP combines the CARVER target analysis method with Social Network Analysis and a systems framework for identifying and bounding social mechanisms that support dark networks, as well as a means for identifying and evaluating changes in networks. This framework is then applied to a 2006 open-source data set of an Indonesian terrorist network. The result is a demonstrated utility in not only understanding the structure of that dark network, but also in designing an intervention strategy, along with means to measure structural and operational changes in that network.
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Homeland Security Affairs Journal, Volume II - 2006: Issue 2, July
Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate SchoolCenter for Homeland Defense and Security, 2006-07);July 2006. The July 2006 issue of Homeland Security Affairs offers articles about risk perception, domestic right wing extremist groups, social network analysis, and the impact of foreign policy on homeland security. It ... -
Cyber System Assurance through Improved Network Anomaly Modeling and Detection
Bollmann, Chad A. (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate SchoolMonterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2019-12); NPS-19-N039-AThe objectives of this work were to investigate the source of the dual natures of network traffic (i.e., Gaussian and alpha-stable) in order prove the merit of further development, improvement, and application of non-parametric ... -
Cyber System Assurance through Improved Network Anomaly Modeling and Detection
Bollmann, Chad A. (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate SchoolMonterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2019-12); NPS-19-N039-AThe objectives of this work were to investigate the source of the dual natures of network traffic (i.e., Gaussian and alpha-stable) in order prove the merit of further development, improvement, and application of non-parametric ...