New algorithm may help reveal fake Facebook, Twitter accounts
New York, April 18: Scientists have developed a new generic algorithm based on machine-learning to detect fake accounts on social network platforms including Facebook and Twitter, an advance with considerable potential for applications in the cyber-security arena.
"With recent disturbing news about failures to safeguard user privacy, and targeted use of social media to influence elections, rooting out fake users has never been of greater importance," said lead researcher Dima Kagan from the Ben-Gurion University (BGU) in Israel.
The study showed that the algorithm is generic, and efficient both in revealing fake users and in disclosing the influential people in social networks.
"Overall, the results demonstrated that in a real-life friendship scenario we can detect people who have the strongest friendship ties as well as malicious users, even on Twitter," the researchers said.
Based on machine-learning algorithms, the new method, detailed in the journal Social Network Analysis and Mining, works on the assumption that fake accounts tend to establish improbable links to other users in the networks.
It constructs a link prediction classifier that can estimate, with high accuracy, the probability of a link existing between two users.
It also generates a new set of meta-features based on the features created by the link prediction classifier.
Using the meta-features, the researchers, constructed a generic classifier that can detect fake profiles in a variety of online social networks.
"We tested our algorithm on simulated and real-world data sets on 10 different social networks and it performed well on both," Kagan said.
Previously, researchers from the BGU had developed the Social Privacy Protector (SPP) to help users evaluate their friends list in seconds to identify which have few or no mutual links and might be "fake" profiles.
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Kidnapper arrested in Faridabad, bank manager rescued
Faridabad (PTI): A man was arrested here on Tuesday for allegedly abducting a bank manager for a ransom of Rs 5 lakh, police said.
On April 21, two armed men, including Bhupender (30), kidnapped Satish Kumar from his house in Ballabgarh’s Sector 62. They took him to Himachal Pradesh and demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh from his family, they said.
Later, the accused negotiated with Satish's family and asked for Rs 5 lakh for his release. They asked his family to deposit Rs 1 lakh in Satish's account and withdrew the money from different places using his debit card, police said.
The kidnappers asked Satish’s wife to bring the remaining Rs 4 lakh Kelly bypass in Ballabgarh. Police then laid a trap and arrested Bhupender, they said.
Bhupendra revealed that he was a tenant in Satish's house and lived there about 4 months ago. He then hatched a plan with his friend Ravindra to kidnap the bank manager for ransom, a senior police officer said.
He told police that Satish was with Ravindra in Mathura. Following this, a team went there and rescued the victim but the other accused managed to flee, police said.
They said two pistols, three live cartridges, a rope, Satish's vehicle used for kidnapping him and Rs 4 lakh cash were recovered from the kidnappers.
“Our teams are conducting raids to nab Ravindra and others,” said Sube Singh, spokesperson of Faridabad police.
