Method, apparatus and computer program product for identifying accounts of interest in a network

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer program product for identifying accounts of interest in a network are provided, the method comprising controlling circuitry to: receive information indicative of a plurality of target accounts, the plurality of target accounts including at least a portion of the accounts in the network; monitor for each target account of the plurality of target accounts, at a number of instances of time, connections between that target account and other accounts in the network; using a result of the monitoring, select target accounts associated with an increase of connections to accounts in the network with which the target account has no previous connection, above a first threshold level, as a first set of accounts; using a result of the monitoring, select target accounts associated with a decrease in connections to accounts in the network with which the target account has a previous connection, above a second threshold level, as a second set of accounts; and identify at least one target account of the plurality of target accounts as an account of interest when the at least one target account is present in both the first and second set of accounts.