Chat assistant for criminal group infiltration

总部位于魁北克市的Thales Research & Technology Canada（TRT）正在研究开发自然语言处理（NLP）工具的方法，这些工具将帮助试图参与暗网黑客聊天室的渗透代理，目标是提前发现即将到来的攻击中正在讨论和针对的软件漏洞。公司特有的问题是开发工具，通过监视聊天对话，理解语言，并为回复提供建议来帮助渗透代理。这三个步骤中的每一个都代表了一个主要的应用问题。首先，监控聊天对话需要从动态变化的一组参与者之间在同一时间在同一房间发生的多个同时进行的对话中解开一个消息网络。我们建议通过计算在单个消息的内容和元数据中发现的特征之间的相似性来做到这一点。其次，理解这些信息需要规范化在线发现的非常规拼写，并解释 网络社区创造的新习惯用法。我们拥有一套最先进的NLP工具，可以帮助应对这一挑战。最后，为了向渗透代理建议相关信息，系统必须能够访问它可以查询的信息数据库，以及了解代理的在线角色以过滤该信息并保留有用的事实。该系统的这一部分可以基于申请人的研究团队开发的虚拟助理技术。该项目将使泰雷兹能够在安全攻击发生之前了解和预测它们，从而为加拿大公司，银行，政府机构和个人的软件和网络安全提供重要的推动力。

Thales Research & Technology Canada (TRT), based in Québec City, is investigating ways to develop natural language processing (NLP) tools that will assist an infiltration agent trying to participate in a hacker chat room on the Dark Web, with the goal of uncovering ahead of time which software vulnerabilities are being discussed and targeted in upcoming attacks. The company-specific problem is to develop tools that will help the infiltration agent by monitoring chat conversations, understanding the language, and suggesting ideas for replies. Each of these three steps represents a major applied problem. Firstly, monitoring chat conversations requires untangling a web of messages from multiple simultaneous conversations taking place in the same room at the same time between a dynamically-changing set of participants. This we propose to do by computing the similarity between features found in the content and metadata of individual messages. Secondly, understanding the messages requires normalizing the unconventional spelling found online and interpreting the new idioms created by the web community. We have at our disposal a set of state-of-the-art NLP tools that can help in this challenge. Finally, in order to suggest relevant information to the infiltration agent, the system must have access to a database of information it can query, as well as an awareness of the agent's online persona to filter this information and retain useful facts. This part of the system can be based on the virtual assistant technology developed by the applicant's research team. This project will give Thales the ability to learn about and anticipate security attacks before they happen, and will thus give an important boost to software and network security for Canadian companies, banks, government agencies, and individuals.