DOISAC: Detecting Orchestrated Information and Synthetic Account Campaigns Navy STTR FY2015.A Sol No.: Navy STTR FY2015.A Topic No.: N15A-T020 Topic Title: DOISAC: Detecting Orchestrated Information and Synthetic Account Campaigns Proposal No.: N15A-020-0053 Firm: Aptima, Inc. 12 Gill Street Suite 1400 Woburn, Massachusetts 01801 Contact: Emilio Ferrara Phone: (812) 856-7841 Web Site: aptima.com Abstract: The importance of social media in the information ecosystem has created strong incentives for the development of human-mimicking social bots. Bots may be part of the information strategies of terrorist organizations, aiming to inflate perceptions of support for their activities. Bots may be involved in manipulating information in emergencies to stoke hysteria. The increasing prevalence and sophistication of bots and the information campaigns they underpin makes detecting bot campaigns and understanding their tactics an urgent goal. Aptima and Indiana University propose to develop the DOISAC system for Detecting Orchestrated Information and Synthetic Account Campaigns. Building on Indiana University's state-of-the-art approaches to detecting bots and information campaigns, DOISAC will address key challenges in detecting and characterizing bot-fueled information campaigns. When complete, DOISAC will be a social media monitoring system that enables large-scale, real-time processing, storage, and querying of social media data; provides validated algorithms for bot and campaign detection in multiple languages of interest; and presents sophisticated analysis of detected campaigns and target audiences. Benefits: DOISAC will provide the capability to collect, store, and analyze large-scale social media data and deploy algorithms in real time for detecting bots and information campaigns. Fine-grained analysis of information campaign tactics and targets will facilitate analyst sense-making, reduce the risk of information overload, and provide a means for developing effective countermeasures. DOISAC will provide a new capability in social media monitoring that will enable decision-makers in government, non-governmental organizations, and industry to better sift through social media noise to find truthful information. Return