At the recent Defcon conference, Chris Sumner gave a presentation called “Social Networking Special Ops: Extending Data Visualization Tools for Faster Pwnage” where he showed how you can use tools like Maltego, Processing, and DAVIX to parse information from social networks like friend relationships and status updates into useful information. One particularly impressive example was in chasing a 419 Scammer through Facebook Updates.
Chris then detailed some of his research into a 419 Nigerian scam through which a friend of his had lost a laptop. He was able to gather information through Facebook by friending users who were located in Nigeria. His research revealed numerous brazen scammers who were flaunting their activities on Facebook. In fact, he got pretty far with identifying individuals involved in the scam until it became apparent that going all the way could be danger. As the slide said in his presentation: “Health Warning: Messing With Criminals Can Reduce Your Life Expectancy.”
You can view his massive 224-slide presentation (PDF, Google Viewer) and Whitepaper (PDF, Google Viewer) at his site.
via Data Visualization For Faster, More Effective Pen Testing – Evil Bytes Blog – Dark Reading.
