5 ms·

I'm on the board. I actually don't have any more information about this right now, but I'll be following up to see what I can learn. I imagine that similar to v

I'm on the board. I actually don't have any more information about this right now, but I'll be following up to see what I can learn. I imagine that similar to voting ring detection on a site like HN, the specific details about what tipped us off are probably going to remain semi-private. But the issue of fraud detection in academia is incredibly interesting and a good example of where publishers (both via software and human intervention) are playing an important role. I'll see if we can share any more of the technical details publicly.

jcr 12y ago
It seems safe to assume most "known" ring detection systems being used are private/secret since their goal is to prevent abuse and revealing their details might thwart their effectiveness. None the less, at least some ring detection work is being done publicly, and I've recently been trying to learn more about the methods being used. The following should be helpful to anyone who has to fight this sort of abuse: "Doppelganger Finder: Taking Stylometry To The Underground" https://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~sa499/papers/oakland2014-underground.pdf https://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~sa499/papers/oakland2014-unde... Code: Find multiple accounts (doppelgangers) of a user https://github.com/sheetal57/doppelganger-finder https://github.com/sheetal57/doppelganger-finder https://psal.cs.drexel.edu/index.php/JStylo-Anonymouth https://psal.cs.drexel.edu/index.php/JStylo-Anonymouth https://github.com/psal/jstylo https://github.com/psal/jstylo
- dougabug 12y ago
  Sounds something akin to "security through obscurity." The perceived advantages of proprietary secret security measures are often dwarfed by the benefits of opening up a system to careful scrutiny.
  - pilsetnieks 12y ago
    It depends. Complexity and relatively low interest in a project may mean that only a few truly motivated individuals would even look at the code - and in this case the people most motivated are those who want to abuse the system.
  - danielweber 12y ago
    Knowing that "security through obscurity" is a bad thing is a fine heuristic, especially for beginners. Thinking "security through obscurity" is automatically and always bad is incorrect. The people running this detection software don't do it to satisfy your intellectual curiosity. They do it because they are attempting to prevent attacks on their systems.

jcr 12y ago

It seems safe to assume most "known" ring detection systems being used are private/secret since their goal is to prevent abuse and revealing their details might thwart their effectiveness. None the less, at least some ring detection work is being done publicly, and I've recently been trying to learn more about the methods being used. The following should be helpful to anyone who has to fight this sort of abuse: "Doppelganger Finder: Taking Stylometry To The Underground" https://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~sa499/papers/oakland2014-underground.pdf https://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~sa499/papers/oakland2014-unde... Code: Find multiple accounts (doppelgangers) of a user https://github.com/sheetal57/doppelganger-finder https://github.com/sheetal57/doppelganger-finder https://psal.cs.drexel.edu/index.php/JStylo-Anonymouth https://psal.cs.drexel.edu/index.php/JStylo-Anonymouth https://github.com/psal/jstylo https://github.com/psal/jstylo

dougabug 12y ago
Sounds something akin to "security through obscurity." The perceived advantages of proprietary secret security measures are often dwarfed by the benefits of opening up a system to careful scrutiny.
- pilsetnieks 12y ago
  It depends. Complexity and relatively low interest in a project may mean that only a few truly motivated individuals would even look at the code - and in this case the people most motivated are those who want to abuse the system.
- danielweber 12y ago
  Knowing that "security through obscurity" is a bad thing is a fine heuristic, especially for beginners. Thinking "security through obscurity" is automatically and always bad is incorrect. The people running this detection software don't do it to satisfy your intellectual curiosity. They do it because they are attempting to prevent attacks on their systems.