NAVALPOSTGRADUATESCHOOL

MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA

THESIS

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.HACKING SOCIAL NETWORKS:EXAMINING THE VIABILITY OF USING COMPUTERNETWORK ATTACK AGAINST SOCIAL NETWORKS

byRussell G. Schuhart IIMarch 2007Thesis Advisor: David TuckerSecond Reader: Karl Pfeiffer

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1. AGENCY USE ONLY

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2. REPORT DATE

March 2007

3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED

Master’s Thesis

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE:

Hacking Social Networks: Examining the Viability of Using Computer Network Attack Against Social Networks

6. AUTHOR(S)

Russell G. Schuhart II, LT, USN

5. FUNDING NUMBERS7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)

Naval Postgraduate SchoolMonterey, CA 93943-5000

8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONREPORT NUMBER9. SPONSORING /MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES)

N/A

10. SPONSORING/MONITORINGAGENCY REPORT NUMBER11. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

The views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not reflect the official policyor position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

12a. DISTRIBUTION / AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

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13. ABSTRACT (maximum 200 words)

Social Network Analysis (SNA) has been proposed as a tool to defeat transnational terrorist groups such asAl Qaeda. However, SNA is an descriptive tool that is a product of sociology and not an offensive tool used to attack a social network. SNA was not designed to destabilize covert networks that are difficult to observe and penetrate.This work presents a possible way to improve SNA’s performance against a covert social network by employing theComputer Network Attack (CNA) model. The CNA model is used by computer network security to represent thetraditional approach to hacking a computer network. Although not tested in this paper, it is argued that the CNAmodel should be able to improve the accuracy of SNA when applied to a covert social network by standardizing thedestabilization process and allowing for frequent challenges of operating assumptions.A history and overview of both computer networks and social networks is covered to allow for a comparisonof the two networks. The networks have enough similarities to allow the application of the CNA model without majormodification from its original form. Assumptions about the security of computer and social networks are examined toclarify how the CNA model can attack a social network. The model is examined for validity and the conclusion isthat the CNA model can incorporate SNA into a more methodical approach to achieve better results that using SNAalone. The final portion of the paper details a possible implementation of the CNA model and how it can be used aspart of an offensive effort to destabilize a covert social network.

15. NUMBER OFPAGES

14. SUBJECT TERMS

Social Networks, Social Network Analysis, Computer Networks, ComputerNetwork Attack, Hacking, Networks, Network Theory

16. PRICE CODE17. SECURITYCLASSIFICATION OFREPORT

Unclassified

18. SECURITYCLASSIFICATION OF THISPAGE

Unclassified

19. SECURITYCLASSIFICATION OFABSTRACT

Unclassified

20. LIMITATION OFABSTRACT

NSN 7540-01-280-5500

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