Economic feasibility study for stealthy socialbot network establishment. (1st November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hosseini Moghaddam, Samaneh; Abbaspour, Maghsoud
• Is Part Of: IET information security. Volume 14:Number 6(2020)
• Page Start: 694
• Page End: 703
• Publication Date: 2020-11-01
• Subjects: social networking (online) -- security of data -- purchasing; infiltration scale -- stealthy behaviour -- infiltration time -- fully stealthy socialbot network -- socialbot network design strategy -- acceptable costs -- establishment strategy -- automatic establishment -- analytical model -- detection evasion techniques -- online social network -- fake accounts -- intelligent software -- stealthy socialbot network establishment -- economic feasibility study; Computer security -- Periodicals; Cryptography -- Periodicals; Computer networks -- Security measures -- Periodicals; Database security -- Periodicals; 005.8
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-ifs.2019.0152
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-8709

Abstract

Abstract : Socialbots are intelligent software that controls all behaviour of fake accounts in an online social network. Since they are armed with detection evasion techniques, it is valuable to be able to determine the effectiveness of these techniques. In this study, an analytical model is developed to estimate a lower bound for the cost of automatic establishment of a socialbot network. Moreover, by considering fake accounts purchasing as an establishment strategy, an upper bound is suggested for acceptable costs. These two boundaries are compared to decide on the economic feasibility of a socialbot network design strategy. To demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of the model, two case studies are investigated. They show that although designing a fully stealthy socialbot network is economically feasible, the infiltration time would be unacceptable. Thus, this ideal situation in which the establishment is fully stealthy, performs in a tolerable time, and satisfactory infiltration scale, is impractical. A possible solution could be achieved by reducing the time and cost in exchange for less stealthy behaviour while the infiltration scale kept unchanged. Since the model presents a trade‐off between stealthiness, time, and cost, it is a useful tool facilitating the design of a possible strategy.