System and method for target profiling using social network analysis

• US 9,060,029 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2012
• Issued: 06/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cognyte Technologies Israel Ltd. (Cognyte Software Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Verint Systems Limited (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Amsterdamski, Lior
• Primary Examiner(s): JACOBS, LASHONDA T
• Application Number:
  US13/663,403
• Publication Number:
  US 20130151616A1
• Time in Patent Office: 960 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/206, 709/217, 709/223, 709/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A profile or dossier of a user is constructed based partly on data culled from a data network that reveals indirect, network-mediated relationships with other individuals and groups. The profile is assembled from information, such as properties of a target individual to build an initial social circle of the target individual. References to the target individual can be derived from the direct and indirect associations in order to compile a dossier on the target individual from the references to the target individual. The initial social circle may be expanded by building respective new social circles having new associations by crawling a plurality of web sites, and deriving additional references to the target individual from the new associations in the new social circles. According to a further aspect of the method, compiling a dossier includes extracting metadata from the references.

Claims

1. A method of assembling information, comprising the steps of:

identifying properties of a target individual, comprising using a correlation processor to extract user identifiers from retrieved data items, and correlating the user identifiers from different web sites, thereby identifying properties of a target individual;

building an initial social circle of the target individual by crawling a plurality of web sites from different social media providers to identify direct and indirect associations between users of the social media providers and the target individual, wherein the target individual has no direct connection with least one of the social media providers;

deriving references to the target individual from the direct and indirect associations; and

compiling a dossier on the target individual from the references to the target individual.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

expanding the initial social circle by building respective new social circles having new associations by crawling the plurality of web sites; and

deriving additional references to the target individual from the new associations in the new social circles.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the steps of expanding the initial social circle and deriving additional references recursively based on the new associations.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein compiling a dossier comprises weighting the references to the target individual for correlation thereof

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein compiling a dossier comprises extracting metadata from the references.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein compiling a dossier comprises correlating the references according to similarities and commonalities therebetween.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising extracting metadata from the references and correlating the references comprises correlating the metadata.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of determining candidates for the target individual, wherein the candidates lack accounts on the plurality of web sites.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising the step of applying an entity matching procedure to specify the target individual from among the candidates.

10. A computer software product, including a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in which computer program instructions are stored, which instructions, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the steps of:

identifying properties of a target individual, wherein a correlation processor extracts user identifiers from retrieved data items, and correlates the user identifiers from different web sites;

building an initial social circle of the target individual by crawling a plurality of web sites from different social media providers to identify direct and indirect associations between users of the social media providers and the target individual, wherein the target individual has no direct connection with at least one of the social media providers;

deriving references to the target individual from the direct and indirect associations; and

compiling a dossier on the target individual from the references to the target individual.

11. The computer software product according to claim 10, wherein the instructions cause the computer to perform the additional steps of:

expanding the initial social circle by building respective new social circles having new associations by crawling the plurality of web sites; and

deriving additional references to the target individual from the new associations in the new social circles.

12. The computer software product according to claim 11, further comprising performing the steps of expanding the initial social circle and deriving additional references recursively based on the new associations.

13. The computer software product according to claim 12, wherein deriving additional references recursively comprises automatically determining a level of recursion.

14. The computer software product according to claim 10, wherein compiling a dossier comprises weighting the references to the target individual for correlation thereof.

15. The computer software product according to claim 10, wherein compiling a dossier comprises correlating the references according to similarities and commonalities therebetween.

16. The computer software product according to claim 15, further comprising extracting metadata from the references and correlating the references comprises correlating the metadata.

17. The computer software product according to claim 10, further comprising the step of determining candidates for the target individual, wherein the candidates lack accounts on the plurality of web sites.

18. The computer software product according to claim 17, further comprising the step of applying an entity matching procedure to specify the target individual from among the candidates.

19. A data processing system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory accessible to the processor storing programs and data objects therein, the programs including a wizard, wherein execution of the programs cause the processor to perform the steps of;

using the wizard for identifying properties of a target individual, comprising using a correlation processor to extract user identifiers from retrieved data items, and correlating the user identifiers from different web sites, thereby identifying properties of a target individual;

building an initial social circle of the target individual by crawling a plurality of web sites from different social media providers to identify direct and indirect associations between users of the social media providers and the target individual, wherein the target individual has no direct connection with at least one of the social media providers;

deriving references to the target individual from the direct and indirect associations; and

compiling a dossier on the target individual from the references to the target individual.

20. The data processing system according to claim 19, wherein execution of the programs cause the processor to perform the additional steps of:

expanding the initial social circle by building respective new social circles having new associations by crawling the plurality of web sites; and

deriving additional references to the target individual from the new associations in the new social circles.