DNA-Inspired Online Behavioral Modeling and Its Application to Spambot Detection

Stefano Cresci; Roberto Di Pietro; Marinella Petrocchi; Angelo Spognardi; Maurizio Tesconi

doi:10.1109/MIS.2016.29

DNA-Inspired Online Behavioral Modeling and Its Application to Spambot Detection

Stefano Cresci, Roberto Di Pietro, Marinella Petrocchi, Angelo Spognardi, Maurizio Tesconi

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

135 Scopus citations

Abstract

A novel, simple, and effective approach to modeling online user behavior extracts and analyzes digital DNA sequences from user online actions and uses Twitter as a benchmark to test the proposal. Specifically, the model obtains an incisive and compact DNA-inspired characterization of user actions. Then, standard DNA analysis techniques discriminate between genuine and spambot accounts on Twitter. An experimental campaign supports the proposal, showing its effectiveness and viability. Although Twitter spambot detection is a specific use case on a specific social media platform, the proposed methodology is platform and technology agnostic, paving the way for diverse behavioral characterization tasks.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	58-64
Number of pages	7
Journal	IEEE Intelligent Systems
Volume	31
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/MIS.2016.29
State	Published - Sep 1 2016
Externally published	Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Artificial Intelligence
Control and Systems Engineering
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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10.1109/MIS.2016.29

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AU - Tesconi, Maurizio

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AB - A novel, simple, and effective approach to modeling online user behavior extracts and analyzes digital DNA sequences from user online actions and uses Twitter as a benchmark to test the proposal. Specifically, the model obtains an incisive and compact DNA-inspired characterization of user actions. Then, standard DNA analysis techniques discriminate between genuine and spambot accounts on Twitter. An experimental campaign supports the proposal, showing its effectiveness and viability. Although Twitter spambot detection is a specific use case on a specific social media platform, the proposed methodology is platform and technology agnostic, paving the way for diverse behavioral characterization tasks.

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DNA-Inspired Online Behavioral Modeling and Its Application to Spambot Detection

Abstract

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