Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beer-Sheva, Israel) and University of Washington (Seattle) researchers have developed a new generic method to detect fake accounts on most types of social networks, including Facebook and Twitter.
According to a new study in Social Network Analysis and Mining, the new method is based on the assumption that fake accounts tend to establish improbable links to other users in the networks.
“With recent disturbing news about failures to safeguard user privacy, and targeted use of social media by Russia to influence elections, rooting out fake users has never been of greater importance,” explains Dima Kagan, lead researcher and a researcher in the BGU Department of Software and Information Systems Engineering. “We tested our algorithm on simulated and real-world data sets on 10 different social networks and it performed well on both.”
The algorithm consists of two main iterations based on machine-learning algorithms. The first constructs a link prediction classifier that can estimate, with high accuracy, the probability of a link existing between two users. The second iteration generates a new set of meta-features based on the features created by the link prediction classifier. Lastly, the researchers used these meta-features and constructed a generic classifier that can detect fake profiles in a variety of online 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 say. “Our method outperforms other anomaly detection methods and we believe that it has considerable potential for a wide range of applications particularly in the cyber-security arena.”
The Ben-Gurion University researchers previously 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.
Learn more: Ben-Gurion University researchers develop algorithm to locate fake users on many social networks
The Latest on: Fake users
[google_news title=”” keyword=”fake users” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Fake users
- Burglars using pizza box as decoy to break into homeson May 10, 2024 at 6:05 pm
Multiple videos shared with FOX 11 show a woman holding a pizza box knocking on doors in Torrance and Harbor City. If no one answers the door, the woman walks away and thieves bust into the homes ...
- Fake policeman with handcuffs pulled woman over using blue lightson May 10, 2024 at 3:00 pm
The driver told a court how Chris Green, who claimed to be ‘undercover law enforcement’, left abruptly when he spotted her child in the car ...
- In Deep Fake Video, White House Claimed WWII Won By America And Ukraineon May 10, 2024 at 9:45 am
Some readers appeared to believe that the video was real, and accused the White House of either spreading misinformation or of being completely ill-informed ...
- ‘It wasn’t a concert’: Man calls out Spotify for allegedly scamming users with fake concertson May 10, 2024 at 8:00 am
San Francisco-based TikToker Tallneil (@tallneil) accused Spotify of bait-and-switch tactics in a video posted on April 30. The video has over 29,000 views as of publication. “So, basically got ...
- Analysis of millions of posts shows that users seek out echo chambers on social mediaon May 9, 2024 at 10:43 am
We all know that communication encompasses so much more than words. Facial expressions, intonations, hand gestures, and more contribute to our expressiveness. However, in social media, these ...
- Vast Network of Fake Web Shops Defrauds 850,000 & Countingon May 9, 2024 at 9:45 am
China-based cybercriminal group "BogusBazaar" created tens of thousands of fraudulent online stores based on expired domains to steal payment credentials.
- Fake AI Photos Of Rihanna At Met Gala Trick Social Media Userson May 8, 2024 at 1:14 pm
Rihanna fell victim to AI image generation after deepfake photos of her at the MET gala tricked social media users into thinking she attended.
- Snakes Fake Dying Using 'Dripping Mouthfuls' of Bloodon May 7, 2024 at 4:01 pm
Dice snakes were seen to lie still and fake their own deaths, while also smearing themselves in feces and musk, and bleeding from the mouth.
- Scammers are tricking Android users into installing a fake antivirus app that’s actually malware — how to stay safeon May 6, 2024 at 2:56 pm
New social engineering campaign uses text messages to trick victims into calling scammers who then have them install a malware-filled app on their phone.
via Bing News