Using social graphs to combat malicious attacks

US8434150B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Microsoft Corporation · US

Inventors

• Yinglian Xie · Cupertino, US
• Fang Yu · Beijing, CN
• Martin Abadi · Palo Alto, US
• Eliot C. Gillum · Mountain View, US
• Junxian Huang · Suzhou, CN
• Zhuoqing Morley Mao · Ann Arbor, US
• Jason D. Walter · San Jose, US
• Krishna Vitaldevara · Fremont, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 24, 2011
• Grant date: Apr 30, 2013
• Expiry date: Oct 7, 2031

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04L51/212
• WIPO field: Digital communication
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Detection of user accounts associated with spammer attacks may be performed by constructing a social graph of email users. Biggest connected components (BCC) of the social graph may be used to identify legitimate user accounts, as the majority of the users in the biggest connected components are legitimate users. BCC users may be used to identify more legitimate users. Using degree-based detection techniques and PageRank based detection techniques, the hijacked user accounts and spammer user accounts may be identified. The users' email sending and receiving behaviors may also be examined, and the subgraph structure may be used to detect stealthy attackers. From the social graph analysis, legitimate user accounts, malicious user accounts, and compromised user accounts can be identified.