SBIR Phase I: Stopping Cybercrime in Social Networks

该项目提出的创新是一种保护个人和企业免受套接字软件影响的新技术，套接字软件指的是由Facebook、Twitter和Pinterest等在线社交网络(OSN)启用并在其上传播的网络犯罪活动。首先，很明显，OSN是网络犯罪的新战场，趋势令人担忧，而一个旨在确保互联网安全的计划必须包括更安全的社交网络。其次，套接字软件将需要新的安全解决方案，因为它与现有的安全解决方案有很大不同，无法检测到其他安全威胁，如病毒和被恶意软件感染的网站。该项目的创新之处在于为保护OSN及其用户的安全提供了一种全面而有效的方法。这种方法的技术新颖性在于：(A)它如何通过组合所有可能的有用信息来确定套接字软件，最重要的是，它结合了帖子的“社交背景”，以及(B)它回答的广泛的问题，包括检测恶意的帖子、用户和Facebook应用程序。一个关键的技术挑战是为大规模部署设计解决方案。使用早期的原型，观察到超过60%的人在5个月内至少接触到Facebook的一个恶意链接。鉴于目前仍处于社交网络时代的早期，该公司有巨大的机会成为这一领域的安全先锋。拥有8亿用户的Facebook已经成为新的网络：Facebook个人资料现在是公司的代言人，而不是独立的网站。当用户在OSN中花费大量时间并受其影响时，Socware的效果只会增加。从历史上看，每次出现新的技术平台(PC、互联网和网络)，就会出现新的网络威胁和新的专业安全解决方案。OSN的安全格局目前是完全开放的，没有一个占主导地位的参与者。最初，该项目将专注于Facebook，利用其现有的Facebook安全应用程序，但它将扩展到其他OSN，成为任何社交网络的首选安全场所。在这项提议的范围之外，未来的长期计划将是机会主义的，可能会包括Google+、Twitter、LinkedIn，最终还包括像中国的人人网、微博这样的外语网络的服务，这将是一个不小的扩张，但可能会带来丰厚的利润。该项目有一个多管齐下的战略，将拟议的技术货币化，这将有助于创造新的服务，并补充公司目前成功的服务，公司合作伙伴的反馈证明了这一点。

The innovation proposed in this project is a novel technology to protect people and businesses from socware, which refers to cyber-crime activities enabled by and propagated on Online Social Networks (OSNs), such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. First, it is clear that OSNs is the new battleground of cybercrime with worrisome trends, and a plan towards a secure the Internet has to include safer social networks. Second, socware will require novel security solutions, as it is significantly different and cannot be detected with existing security solutions for other security threats, like viruses and malware-infected websites. The innovation of this project is a holistic and effective approach for securing OSNs and their users. The technical novelty the approach lies in: (a) how it determines socware, by combining all possible useful information, and most importantly the "social context" of a post, and (b) the extensive repertoire of questions it answers, which include detecting malicious: posts, users, and Facebook apps. A key technical challenge is to engineer the solution for a large-scale deployment. Using an early prototype, it is observed that more than 60% of people are exposed to at least one malicious link in 5 months in Facebook.There is a tremendous opportunity for the company to become the security pioneer in this space, given that these are still the early years of the social-web era. With 800M users, Facebook has become the new web: Facebook profiles are now the face of companies, instead of stand-alone websites. The effect of socware will only increase as users spend substantial time in OSNs and are influenced by them. Historically, every time a new technological platform emerges (PCs, Internet, and web), new cyber-threats and new specialized security solutions have emerged. The security landscape in OSNs is currently wide open, without a dominant player. Initially, the project will focus on Facebook, leveraging its current Facebook security application, but it will expand to other OSNs, to become the go-to security place for any social network. Outside the scope of this proposal, the long-term future plans will be opportunistic and could include services for Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, and eventually, foreign-language networks, like the Chinese Renren, Weibo, which will be a non-trivial, but potentially lucrative expansion. The project has a multi-pronged strategy for monetizing the proposed technology, which will help create new services and complement the current successful services of the company, as evidenced by the feedback from the company's partners.