Data Mining: Supporting
Angela Bleggi
Taylor Field
Fidel Rubio
Cameron Williams
Definitions
 Data
Mining - the principle of sorting through large
amounts of data and picking out relevant information.
 Association
Rule Mining – The principle of
finding regularities in data / identifying patterns that
occur frequently in a database.
Main Argument
We need to be proactive rather than reactive in
the face of terrorist threats, and the use of data
mining would allow us to gather and judge the
most information possible in terms of identifying
and potentially preventing future acts of
terrorism.
Detecting Terrorist Threats

According to Undersecretary of Defense Pete Aldridge
in a 2002 interview, a main aspect of the government’s
data mining would be finding connections between
transactions such as passports, visas, work permits,
driver's license, credit card, airline tickets, rental cars,
gun purchases, chemical purchases -- and events -such as arrest or suspicious activities.

Once a potential terrorist has been identified, data
mining can be used to track their activity through travel
records.
Detecting Terrorist Threats

Association Rule Mining can be used to find suspicious
patterns within a database.
For instance, if every time John Doe received a call from
Oklahoma City he immediately called a number in
Pakistan, an algorithm would associate these calls.
National security officials could then decide whether or
not to investigate further.
Data Mining and Security

It is true that no one likes their privacy invaded,
but it is also true that no one likes living in fear of
terrorist attacks. As citizens of a country that is
all too often the target of terrorist attacks, we
should be willing to sacrifice some of our privacy
in order to maintain national security.