Data Mining Instant Messaging Communications to Perform Author Identification for Cybercrime Investigations

Instant messaging is a form of computer-mediated communication (CMC) with unique characteristics that reflect a realistic presentation of an author’s online stylistic characteristics. Instant messaging communications use virtual identities, which hinder social accountability and facilitate IM-related cybercrimes. Criminals often use virtual identities to hide their true identity and may also supply false information on their virtual identities. This paper presents an IM authorship analysis framework and feature set taxonomy for use in cyber forensics and cybercrime investigations. We explore authorship identification of IM messages to discover the parameters with the highest accuracy for determining the identity of a cyber criminal.