ADMIRAL POINDEXTER, WHERE ARE YOU?

Email traffic patterns can reveal ringleaders (Hazel Muir, 27 March 03, New Scientist)

By looking for patterns in email traffic, a new technique can quickly identify online communities and the key people in them. The approach could mean terrorists or criminal gangs give themselves away, even if they are communicating in code or only discussing the weather.

"If the CIA or another intelligence agency has a lot of intercepted email from people suspected of being part of a criminal network, they could use the technique to figure out who the leaders of the network might be," says Joshua Tyler of Hewlett-Packard's labs in Palo Alto, California. At the very least, it would help them prioritise investigations, he says.

Hence, the Total Awareness program, which "civil libertarians" got ditched. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 29, 2003 10:21 AM