Social Networking Special Ops: Extending Data Visualization Tools for faster Pwnage

Black Hat USA 2010

Presented by: Chris Sumner (TheSuggmeister)
Date: Wednesday July 28, 2010
Time: 13:45 - 15:00
Location: Florentine
Track: Cyber War & Peace

If you’re ever in a position when you need to pwn criminals via social networks or see where Tony Hawk likes to hide skateboards around the world, this talk is for you.

The talk is delivered in two parts, both of which are intended to shine a fun light on visual social network analysis.

The first part introduces how you can extend the powerful data visualization tool, Maltego to speed up and automate the data mining and analysis of social networks. I’ll show how I analyzed skateboard legend, Tony Hawk’s twitter hunt and highlight how you could use the same techniques to set up your very own backyard miniature ECHELON.

The second part illustrates how these techniques have been used to enumerate a 419 scam, infiltrate the scammers social network and expose deeper, more sinister links to organized crime.

I focus specifically on Twitter and Facebook, demonstrating how you can graphically map and analyze social relationships using the Twitter API's, publicly available Facebook profiles, screen scraping and some clunky regex.

Chris Sumner

Chris @TheSuggmeister Sumner has been directly involved in Corporate Information Security since 1999 and has maintained a passion for security since seeing Wargames when it first came out. After a lengthy stint as a Pivot Chart creating, PowerPoint wielding, Security Manager for a business division that alone would make the Fortune100, he has turned his attention to a more geeky pursuit and is currently focused on Security in the Development Lifecycle. Outside the corporate world Chris is a data mining, analysis and visualization geek at heart and also enjoys hiding skateboards in the UK for Tony Hawks twitter hunts.


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