System and method for usage-based misinformation detection and response

Abstract

Methods of detecting, and providing a notification of, the existence of misinformation using usage patterns of a network service enable an organization to respond to the misinformation. The method includes establishing common usage patterns of the network service, identifying an irregular usage pattern, determining that the irregular usage pattern was caused by misinformation, and responding to the misinformation.

1 . A method of detecting, and providing a notification of, the existence of misinformation using usage patterns of a network service, the method comprising: 
 establishing common usage patterns of the network service;    identifying an irregular usage pattern;    determining that the irregular usage pattern was caused by misinformation; and    responding to the misinformation.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining the source of the misinformation.  
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein responding to the misinformation comprises one or more of: 
 modifying the network service to accommodate misinformation;    asking the source of misinformation for correction or retraction;    providing results for searches regarding misinformation;    posting an entry in an online discussion forum explaining the misinformation; or    notifying a group responsible for public relations, CRM, or product branding of misinformation so that the group can react.    
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the usage patterns comprises known pulses and idle time, known content, and max, min, average and mean usage levels.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein misinformation comprises a false quote, a false fact, or a false URL.  
   
   
       6 . A method of detecting abnormal use of a network service caused by misinformation, comprising: 
 determining common usage patterns for the network service;    monitoring the usage patterns of service to detect abnormal usage patterns; and    determining if the abnormal usage patterns were caused by misinformation.    
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein abnormal usage comprises requests for a non-existent URL.  
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein abnormal usage comprises a large number of searches within the network service, which do not match any of the network service's data.  
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein monitoring the usage patterns of service to detect abnormal usage patterns is manually performed.  
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein different users monitor different aspects of the network service.  
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein an automatic misinformation recognition agent requests an authorized user to determine if a given abnormal usage pattern was caused by misinformation.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein an automatic misinformation response agent requests that an authorized human determine how to handle a given misinformation incident.  
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein specific third party services are checked for usage indicating misinformation.  
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein activities of a specific user are checked for behavior indicating misinformation.  
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein determining if the abnormal usage patterns were caused by misinformation comprises checking for correlations between specific activity and patterns of activity to reveal misinformation.  
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein correlations comprise one or more of: 
 actions of a particular user;    numerous searches for a particular topic;    searches that fail to return any results;    action level or content in a third party service;    reduced or low levels of one or more activities; or    hits from a particular source.    
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the network service comprises one or more online servers.  
   
   
       18 . A system for detecting, and providing a notification of, the existence of misinformation using usage patterns of a network service, comprising: 
 means for establishing common usage patterns of the network service;    means for identifying an irregular usage pattern;    means for determining that the irregular usage pattern was caused by misinformation; and    means for responding to the misinformation.    
   
   
       19 . A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for detecting, and providing a notification of, the existence of misinformation using usage patterns of a network service, comprising: 
 establishing common usage patterns of the network service;    identifying an irregular usage pattern;    determining that the irregular usage pattern was caused by misinformation; and    responding to the misinformation.