Can a Terror Attack be Predicted using Algorithms and Analytics?

Data, the importance of this word is inexplicable in today’s world. The amount of data that is generated is ginormous and never-ending. With data comes Analytics, the method to analyze this data and find remarkable meanings that can help us to strategize our next steps. Scientists and researchers believe that they can now use different predicting algorithms to identify and alert future terror attacks by terrorist groups like ISIS. This has been in use for few years now and was specifically used to track social interactions of an India-Pakistan terror outfit called Lashkar-e-Toiba; the group that was responsible for Mumbai attacks in 26/11.

Though their attempts mostly ended in frustration because of the constant switching of accounts by ISIS supporters, which has made it difficult to keep tabs on their activities.

But the new Big Data project initiated by Dr Neil Johnson, a physicist at the University of Miami and his team has created an algorithm which attempts to look for group behavior as users interact on social media. This high end algorithm can randomly scan social media networks across the web in a variety of languages to identify posts and comments that relates to a future attack.

Dr Johnson believes the main focus of this process will be to pick out “Lone Wolves” like the recent Orlando attacker Omar Mateen where an individual shows signs of hatred through social media. Dr Johnson and his team is ready to cooperate and work with governments to tackle his human cruelty before it takes place. As and when this happens technology can make a difference to bring down these monsters of humanity.