DyNet is computer program that allows the user to find ways to undermine a covert network using “information warfare and individual isolation.” Described as the “equivalent of a flight simulator,” it allows the user, such as the intelligence community, to identify, for example, key individuals whose removal could destabilize and organization. It’s designed as part of a continuum of programs developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems (CASOS). Whereas ORA helps identifies patterns in networks, DyNet is designed to helps analysts understand what will happen in response to a specific action, such as the effect on a terrorist network of killing a key leader.
Source(s): Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh Tribune Review
AutoMap is a computer program that performs “network text analysis,” a way of finding links in written texts. AutoMap is designed to automatically trawl through and extract data public source, such as blogs, news sites, and books. The program is able to take an article, for example, about United Nations policy in Sudan, and place the different concepts, such as specific people and places, into a relational context. AutoMap is used to collect data for Carnegie Mellon’s other modeling tools, like ORA.
Source(s): Carnegie Mellon University
Drawing on social network analysis and complex systems, VISTA is an agent-based computer program that predicts possible attacks in urban areas. Designed for military intelligence analysts, the “agents” are various participants , which might be hostile of friendly forces in the city. Such a model could be used by peacekeeping forces to help allocate resources within a city, or determine the best course of action. Researchers involved in the project have written, for example, about a simulation involving Mitrovica, Kosovo.
Source(s): Carnegie Mellon University
ORA is a computer program that tracks changes to a network over time and can be used to identify key individuals or groups of individuals. Designed to help military/law enforcement a key individual whose removal could undermine a terrorist network. ORA uses a combination of different fields, to include network theory, social psychology and management theory, among others. “Just as critical path algorithms can be used to locate those tasks that are critical from a project management perspective, the ORA algorithms can find those people, types of skills or knowledge and tasks that are critical from a performance and information security perspective,” the researchers say.
Source(s): Carnegie Mellon University
An agent-based wargame program developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems. “The goal of this project is to develop a set of simulation tools that would allow experimental approaches to generation of plans of attack informed by knowledge of the structure of covert networks and information gathering approaches available to law enforcement organizations,” according to an official description. Because so little is known about these covert networks, it’s traditionally been difficult to examine whether a particular strategy for undermining a terrorist group would actually work. NetWatch addresses this, by allowing the user to simulate a particular action and see the possible effect on the terrorist network.
Source(s): Carnegie Mellon University
A computer tool that allows law enforcement to integrate data from a variety of sources on a criminal/terrorist networks. “If the goal of investigators is to dismantle these organizations, NetEst will provide recommendations for which actions these law enforcement organizations should take to destabilize the network and cripple its ability at minimum cost,” the researchers say.