Using XML to map relationships in hacker forums

Authors:
Jonathan F. Spencer
Affiliations:
UNC Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
Venue:
Proceedings of the 46th Annual Southeast Regional Conference on XX
Year:
2008

Citing 1
Cited 0

SEQUEL: A structured English query language

SIGFIDET '74 Proceedings of the 1974 ACM SIGFIDET (now SIGMOD) workshop on Data description, access and control

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

XML and the technologies that make use of it (XPath, XSL, etc.) have massive potential for information collection, storage, and visualization. One application in which their functionality stands out is the collection and visualization of social relationships in hacker forums. This information can be used by law enforcement to discover potential informants for a known suspect or by academia to study the complex relationships that exist in the malicious hacker subculture. This paper examines the motivations for, workings of, and uses of the program "XScrape" for the purpose of mapping social networks in hacker forums, but the information it contains can be easily applied to other domains.