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While reading up on outlier cohesion analysis in collaborative social networks, I came across this article which I found pretty interesting in the security niche; “Structural Analysis and Destabilizing Terrorist Networks” by  N. Memon et al. The article discusses key areas in network analysis such as

(i)                  cohesion analysis (such as cliques, ncliques, n-clans and k-plex) to determine familiarity, robustness and reachability.
(ii)                role analysis (such as position role index) to determine critical nodes and
(iii)               power analysis (such as degree centrality, Eigenvector centrality and dependence centrality)

This work has further been refined and published as IEEE conference on intelligence security and ADMA

Practical Algorithms for Destabilizing Terrorist Networks
N Memon, HL Larsen - Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Intelligence Security …, 2006 – Springer

And

Structural Analysis and Mathematical Methods for Destabilizing Terrorist Networks Using Investigative Data …
N Memon, HL Larsen - … Conference on Advanced Data Mining Applications (ADMA 2006), 2006 – Springer

From a generic covert network perspective, there has been previously a lot of work done for darkNet exploration, automated discovery for nodes with case studies in Allpeers, anoNet, Freenet, GNUnet, I2P , Tor, Turtle F2F and WASTE.

A good overview can be found here.

 Destabilizing dynamic covert networks
KM Carley, M Dombroski, M Tsvetovat, J Reminga, N … - Proceedings of the 8th International Command and Control …, 2003 - casos.cs.cmu.edu

The problem of network outliers is not only crucial in intrusion detection but also an interesting network theory problem where a leaf node posses attributes out of the ordinary. As discussed by N. Memon et al for the social aspect of network; “The analysis of the interaction structures that is involved in social network analysis is an important element in the analysis of the micro-macro link, the way in which individual behavior and social phenomena are connected with one another. In this perspective, social networks are both the cause of and the result of individual behavior.”

References from the paper and further readings

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_theory
• Social Network :: Wikipedia
• http://trackingthethreat.com/

1. Scott, J.: Social Network Analysis: A Handbook, 2 edn. Sage Publications, London 2000.

2. Wasserman, S., Faust, K.: Social Network Analysis. Cambridge University Press.1994.

3. Sageman, M.: Understanding Terrorist Networks. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

4. Berry, N., Ko, T., Moy, T., Smrcka, J., Turnley, J., Wu, B.: Emergent clique formation in terrorist recruitment. The AAAI- 04 Workshop on Agent Organizations: Theory and Practice, July 25, 2004, San Jose, California, 2004. http://www.cs.uu.nl/virginia/aotp/papers.htm

5. McAndrew, D.: The structural analysis of criminal networks. In: D. Canter, L. Alison (eds.) The Social Psychology of Crime: Groups, Teams, and Networks, Offender Profiling Series, III.Aldershot, Dartmouth ,1999.

6. Davis, R.H.: Social network analysis: An aid in conspiracy investigations. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin pp. 11–19, 1981.

7. Chen, H., Chung, W., Xu, J.J., Wang, G., Qin, Y., Chau, M.: Crime data mining: A general framework and some examples. Computer 37(4), 50–56, 2004.

8. Krebs, V.: Mapping networks of terrorist cells. Connections 24, 45–52, 2002.

9. Bonacich, P., Power and Centrality. American Journal of Sociology 92: 1170-1184, 1987.

10. Burt, R. S., Structural Holes, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

11. Hanneman, R. E., Introduction to Social Network Methods.Online Textbook Supporting Sociology 175. Riverside, CA: University of California, 200.

12. Burt, R. S., Structure, A General Purpose Network Analysis Program. Reference Manual, Newyork: Columbia University, 1990.

13. Luce, R., Perry, A.: A method of matrix analysis of group structure. Psychometrika 14, 95–116, 1949.

14. Seidman, S.B., Foster, B.L.: A graph theoretic generalization of the clique concept. Journal of Mathematical Sociology 6, 139–154, 1978.

15. Freeman, L.C.: The sociological concept of “group”: An empirical test of two models. American Journal of Sociology98, 152–166 ,1992.

16. Luce, R.: Connectivity and generalized cliques in sociometric group structure. Psychometrika 15, 169–190, 1950.

17. Mokken, R.: Cliques, clubs and clans. Quality and Quantity 13, 161–173, 1979.

18. Balasundaram, B., Butenko, S., Trukhanov, S.: Novel approaches for analyzing biological networks. Journal of Combinatorial Optimization 10, 23–39, 2005.

19. Latora, V., Massimo Marchiori How Science of Complex Networks can help in developing Strategy against Terrorism, Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 20, 69-75, 2004.

20. Memon, N. Henrik Legind Larsen, Practical Algorithms for Destabilizing Terrorist Networks, In Proceedings of IEEE Intelligence Security Conference (ISI 2006), San Diego, California, USA (to appear), 2006.

 Newman, M. E. J. The structure and function of complex networks, SIAM Review 45, 167- 256, 2003.

And on a humorous side, here is an interesting video about how NOT to do it.:)