NetWatch:

Simulation Tools for Study of Covert Networks

Given the increasing threat of terrorism and spread of terrorist organizations, it is of vital importance to understand the properties of such organizations and to devise successful strategies for destabilizing them or decreasing their efficiency.

In order to be successful in combating terrorist organizations, extensive knowledge of the adversary is required. In "The Art of War", Sun Tzu Wrote:

Know your enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are sure to be defeated in every battle.

The need to achieve superior knowledge of the adversary is the driving factor behind the use of defensive and offensive information warfare techniques in the investigation and prevention of terrorist activity.

The goal of this project is to develop a set of simulation tools that would allow experimental approaches to generation of plans of attack informed by knowledge of the structure of covert networks and information gathering approaches available to law enforcement organizations. Use of simulation is of particular importance due to scarcity of real-world data, the secrecy of the organizations that are subject of the study, and very limited ability to conduct empirical testing of hypotheses pertaining to disruption of terrorist networks.