Knowledge management tools for terrorist network analysis

Abstract

A terrorist network is a special kind of social network with emphasis on both secrecy and efficiency. Such networks (consisting of nodes and links) needs to be analyzed and visualized in order to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding that enable network destabilization. This paper presents two novel knowledge management tools for terrorist network analysis. CrimeFighter Investigator provides advanced support for human-centered, target-centric investigations aimed at constructing terrorist networks based on disparate pieces of terrorist information. CrimeFighter Assistant provides advanced support for network, node, and link analysis once a terrorist network has been constructed. The paper focuses primarily on the latter tool. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.