On URL Changes and Handovers in Social Media.

Social media sites (e.g. Twitter and Pinterest) allow users to change the name of their accounts. A change in the account name results in a change in the URL of the user’s homepage. We develop an algorithm that extracts such changes from streaming data and discover that a large number of social media accounts are performing synchronous and collaborative URL changes. We identify various types of URL changes such as handover, exchange, serial handover and loop exchange. All such behaviors are likely to be automated behavior and, thus, indicate accounts that are either already involved in malicious activities or being prepared to do so.