Title: Understanding the structure of terrorist networks

Authors: Nasrullah Memon, David L. Hicks, Henrik Legind Larsen, Muhammad Aslam Uqaili

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Esbjerg Institute of Technology, Aalborg University Esbjerg, Denmark. ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Esbjerg Institute of Technology, Aalborg University Esbjerg, Denmark. ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Esbjerg Institute of Technology, Aalborg University Esbjerg, Denmark. ' Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan

Abstract: This paper presents the study of structural cohesion which is discussed in Social Network Analysis, but can also useful in other important application areas including investigative data mining for destabilising terrorist networks. Structural cohesion is defined as the number of actors who, if removed from a group, would disconnect it. We discuss structural cohesion concepts, such as cliques, n-cliques, n-clans and k-plexes to determine familiarity, robustness and reachability within subgroups of the 9/11 terrorist network. We also propose a methodology of detecting critical regions in covert networks; and then compare them to the topological characteristics of those networks.

Keywords: structural analysis; terrorist networks destabilisation; critical regions; covert networks; investigative data mining; IDM; structural cohesion; terrorism.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIDM.2007.016381

International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data Mining, 2007 Vol.2 No.4, pp.401 - 425

Published online: 23 Dec 2007 *

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