Automated sensing and social network analysis in virtual worlds

In the last decade, social network analysis (SNA) tools have gained considerable interest in intelligence and security communities, as terrorist networks have become more global, decentralized, and flexible. Additionally, recent concerns have been voiced that virtual worlds provide likely breeding grounds for terrorism recruitment, communication, and coordination activities. This paper outlines research involving a survey of the approaches criminal or terrorist groups can take to covertly advance their causes in virtual environments. In addition, a methodology for collecting, storing, and analyzing information about virtual world cyber-behaviors is presented. As an initial effort, data collection devices were created in the virtual world Second Life (SL). These devices are capable of recording a variety of behavioral data about avatars in SL, and then piping that information to an external database. Information from the database can then be analyzed using SNA. Preliminary results indicate that a combined approach utilizing manual and automated intelligence techniques along with SNA provide valuable insights into the structure, function, and key players within virtual world social networks.