This is not a blog about Facebook. Facebook and LinkedIn are examples of "social network tools," fun and useful ways of connecting with people and visualizing your network of friends. Social network analysis (SNA) is a quantitative sociological discipline that is interested in the relationships between actors and the ways in which those relationships provide insight into the organizational structure and behavior of groups of actors (aka networks). It is an idea that has been around since the 19th century but has become a very exciting area of research thanks to computers, which allow us to visualize, analyze, and utilize networks in ways that were simply not possible before.
To make sure you grasp the fundamentals, lets start with a small, simple network:
1. Alice and Bob are friends.
2.Bob and Chuck are friends.
3. Therefore, Alice is connected to Chuck through her friendship with Bob.
So let's think critically about this tiny network for a second. Who is the most important actor in this network? Alice has only 1 friend (Bob), Chuck has only 1 friend (Bob), but Bob has 2 friends. Bob has the highest degree centrality (i.e., number of ties... and by the way, you now understand why this blog's name is so profoundly clever). He is the most popular kid on the block... if this network was a cult, Bob would be its charismatic cult leader. But wait! There's more! Bob also enjoys the highest betweenness (i.e., he is the actor that is between the most nodes). In the biz, we call such actors "brokers" or "gatekeepers." Alice wants to meet Chuck? She's got to go through Bob. Chuck wants to meet Alice? He's got to go through Bob.
So how is this relevant to security, you ask? Well, let's listen in on some of their conversations:
Alice to Bob: Hey, Bob. I'm fixin' to kill me some infidels, but I ain't got any explosives. You holdin'?
Bob to Alice: Naw, man. But my boy Chuck prolly is... he's nuts. You want me to ask him?
Alice to Bob: Please do!
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Bob to Chuck: Chuck, my man. You're nuts, you have any spare explosives?
Chuck to Bob: Does the infidel fear death? Dang, son, you know I do: I'm a bomb-maker.
Bob to Chuck: Well, my dawg Alice wants to be a martyr. Can I get a suicide belt for her?
Chuck to Bob: Sure thing, my man. Here, tell her the first one is free- Oh, snap!
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So what have we learned from this sensitive, nuanced, and realistic portrayal of an aspiring terror network? Networks facilitate the flow of resources and skill sets in an organization. Alice, the willing martyr, is worthless without a bomb. Chuck, the afraid-to-die bomb-maker, isn't all that dangerous without a martyr. Bob brings the two together: the network accomplishes what none of the individual actors could have done on their own.
Quick, multiple choice!
1) The CIA has intercepted the above conversations, but because of budget cuts, their agent in the field has only one bullet. He's got to make it count. But who does he shoot?*
A) Alice the martyr?
B) Bob the broker?
C) Chuck the bomb-maker?
If you even care about the answer, you have found the right blog. Stay tuned!
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For an actual sensitive, nuanced, and historical look at the social network dynamics of modern terrorism, I enthusiastically refer you to Understanding Terror Networks and Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-First Century, two excellent and easily read books by Marc Sageman, patron saint of terrorism and SNA.
*The correct answer is B.
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