In a two-year agreement with the National Science Foundation, the Central Intelligence Agency began the selection of recipients for NSF research grants to develop automated chat room monitors. By July 2004, the CIA had reviewed nearly 250 research proposals and decided to pursue the proposal from RPI.
Associate Professors of Computer Science Bulent Yener and Mukkai Krishnamoorthy received a grant for over $155,000 to develop new techniques for gathering, analyzing, and modeling information found in chat room communications.
The research aims to devise algorithms to identify chat room participants by answering questions such as who in a particular chat room is discussing a specified topic or what kinds of topics are being discussed in a particular room.
Since identifying the true identity of those in a chat room or even whether the U.S. courts have jurisdiction over them can be problematic, it is hoped that these kinds of algorithms will help create an automated surveillance system for the CIA that can discover covert groups of chatters that may pose threats to national security.
When all of the research into this area is completed, it may lead to a system that can be deployed in the background of any chat room and work as a silent listener for eavesdropping.
