Shadow Social Networks

Social networks are all the rage.

However, they are far too formal to capture how people truly communicate with each other, especially if they are breaking the law. After all, we live in an informal age. While the TV show Mad Men presents us with visions of the formal past, in our current world formal attire is rapidly giving way to informal dress even in some of the last bastions of formality such as offices, the symphony, and expensive restaurants. In offices, for example, where once the tie ruled, now the open collar shirt rules and even it has to be over its shoulder, so to speak, at the pull over shirt which is sneaking up on it.

You law abiding citizens – how do you communicate?

Don’t you flip and flitter between email, text, phone, a structured social network, and in person meetings? If you don’t want your boss or spouse to know what you are up to don’t you try and cover your virtual tracks, even if you aren’t breaking the law?

Now how about non-law abiding citizens?

Chances are they are creating a Shadow Social Network. They are likely giving some structure to their unstructured communication system in hope that they don’t get caught. Law breakers and would be law breakers tend to switch from work to private email accounts, the phone or in person meetings when it is best to not leave too clear of a trail.

What so Shadow Social Networks mean for companies and law enforcement?

To really understand what employees are doing and to catch the criminals or terrorists, organizations have to be able to piece together these disparate strands of communication and see HOW the Shadow Social Network functions, WHO is involved, and WHAT is being done. Normal search and analytics won’t work. Simple email threat analysis and keyword search is not up to the task. Only sophisticated solutions for monitoring, searching, and analyzing across all types of unstructured data can hope to piece together the real picture in a timely manner.