METHOD AND MEDIUM FOR IMPLICIT RELATIONSHIP DISCOVERY BASED ON CUMULATIVE CO-TEMPORAL ACTIVITY

摘要

Implied relationships between entities, such as network endpoints, are automatically discovered based on co-temporal events. Events involving pairs of endpoints, such as messaging events in which one endpoint acts as a source and another endpoint acts as a destination, may be detected. Edges between nodes representing those endpoints and other nodes representing other endpoints involved in other recent (co-temporal) events may be added to a progressively constructed graph. Over time, such edges may be progressively weighted in response to the detection of further co-temporal events involving the same endpoints. Relationships between endpoints may be implied based on the resulting accumulated weights of edges linking those endpoints' nodes in the graph even if there is no express relationship between those endpoints in any real-word context (e.g., even if those endpoints are not directly connected in any network, and even if no single event involves both of those endpoints together).

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
determining, using a data processing device, that a first entity was involved in a first event occurring at a first time; determining, using the data processing device, that a second entity, different from the first entity, was involved in a second event, separate from the first event, occurring at a second time different from the first time; comparing the first time with the second time using the data processing device to determine whether the first time is within a specified amount of time from the second time; in response to determining that the first entity was involved in an event that occurred within the specified amount of time of an event in which the second entity was involved, storing information in non-volatile storage media indicative of an existence of an implied relationship between the first entity and the second entity; and reporting to an output device that said implied relationship exists.