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What's New?
VisuaLinks 4.0 will introduce a number of new features and enhancements. Check our What's New? for an overview of the changes in this release.
With this new version, there are three (3) new configurations and pricing models available to better meet the different needs of our expansive user community; Standard, Professional, and Enterprise. Each of the new configurations is described below.
- VisuaLinks Standard is aimed at those users needing only basic search capabilities. This package is designed for organizations that wish to provide for simple search and drill-down capabilities without the need for high-end system resources.
- VisuaLinks Professional is designed for organizations requiring basic to intermediate analytical features. This package enables the most commonly used visual analysis capabilities allowing users to execute a number of specialized queries to extract targeted information and perform a variety of analysis functions on the results. This package also enables the most popular layout and plotting services including geographic mapping, annotations and several data layout algorithms.
- VisuaLinks Enterprise is designed for organizations requiring strategic and/or tactical analysis capabilities. This package enables all VisuaLinks services, including a number of additional query services, numerous data transformation and cleansing tools, query scheduling and notifications as well as the ability to access third-party add-ons such as LAS and ESRI mapping. VisuaLinks Enterprise offers the most comprehensive set of analysis tools available in the marketplace today.
For a complete listing of the feature/functionality differences between packages, review our VisuaLinks 4.0 Packaging Options document.
The server-side APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are also available with the Enterprise package. The APIs provide access to all back-end, server-side processes to access and load data - enabling external programs to call VisuaLinks services. The client-side APIs are planned for the next release of version 4.x, due out later this year.
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...that VisuaLinks 4.0 offers Hot Keys?
Hot keys are part of every software application developed today, including VisuaLinks, and they are also a required part of
508 compliance. Hot keys represent keyboard
shortcuts that can be used to execute commands such as save, print, or copy and paste. Following is a summary of the programmed
keys in version 4.0 - and we are working on making these customizable in the near future.
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| ARROW-UP |
Pan display up |
| ARROW-DOWN |
Pan display down |
| ARROW-LEFT |
Pan display left |
| ARROW-RIGHT |
Pan display right |
| MINUS/DASH |
Zoom out |
| PLUS/EQUAL |
Zoom in View |
| HOME |
Fit to view |
| DELETE |
Delete selected objects |
| SPACE BAR |
Show Report Memo Details |
| BACKSPACE |
Zoom to and select previous object |
| ENTER |
Zoom to and select next object |
| ESCAPE |
Stop tasks |
| PAGE UP |
Switch to previous View |
| PAGE DOWN |
Switch to next View |
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| CONTROL-INSERT |
Add new view |
| CONTROL-A |
Select all in display |
| CONTROL-C |
Copy selection to buffer |
| CONTROL-F |
Query View |
| CONTROL-M |
Add new View |
| CONTROL-N |
Notes menu |
| CONTROL-O |
Manage sessions |
| CONTROL-P |
Print screen |
| CONTROL-Q |
Quit/exit system |
| CONTROL-S |
Save session |
| CONTROL-V |
Paste buffer contents |
| CONTROL-W |
Close View |
| CONTROL-X |
Move selected to buffer |
| CONTROL-Z |
Undo (pending implementation) |
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| F1 |
Show Help |
| F2 |
Show Quick Reference |
| F3 |
Show Release Notes |
| F4 |
Show Tips |
| F5 |
Reset |
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Additionally, all menu commands can be executed using the keyboard. The ALT key invokes the keyboard selection. Depending on
your display mode, you may see underlines in the text of the menus. If you don't, holding down the ALT key shows the
underlined text. With the ALT key down, simply press the underlined letter that corresponds to that menu command you want to execute.
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Clients that have seen the VisuaLinks 4.0 interface really like the new look-and-feel, the optimized layout, and the refined icons. In addition, VAI has provided more customized control for navigating the views and displays including automatic mode selection and middle mouse controls. Using the new Mouse Mode controls means quicker interactions, less mouse clicks, and faster navigation to produce timelier and better results.
To configure the Mouse Modes, open the User Settings menu (found in the Settings menu at the bottom of the View) and choose the Mouse Modes tab. You will see an entry for each mode. For each mode, there are two selections that provide for customized control over how the mode behaves when invoked.
The first configurable option is called "Follow With Mode." This option is used to control what mode the system changes to after it executes the currently selected mode. For example, many users do not like to stay in the Delete (remove data) mode once they have made their selection. Using this new feature, the user can have the system automatically revert to the Move mode (or any other mode) after the Delete is completed.
There is an additional entry called "Go Back To Previous" that will revert the mode back to the previous mode selection. For example, if you set this option for the Delete mode, and in the middle of Detailing objects, you decide to delete one, VisuaLinks would automatically return to the Details mode upon completion of the Delete operation.
The second configurable option is the "Roller Wheel" setting available in most mouse hardware offered today. The roller-wheel, that often takes the place of the middle-mouse button, can be programmed to control the navigational behavior of the system when in specific modes. There are currently five options available for the Roller Wheel setting:
- Zoom In and Zoom Out
- Pan Up and Down
- Pan Left and Right
- Rotate Top to Bottom (x-rotation)
- Rotate Side to Side (y-rotation)
The behavior of the roller wheel can be different for different modes. For example, setting the Roller Wheel option to Zoom In and Zoom Out for the Move mode makes moving objects around the display very efficient since using the roller wheel makes it easy to zoom in/out on the data to focus, grab, and move the objects.
Try out these new navigation aids and configure the environment to maximize your analytical experience.
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Telephone Toll Analysis
This issue's link chart shows a process for analyzing telephone toll records, subscriber data, and other phone-related interdependencies. Generally, telecommunication (telco) companies provide some of the most consistent data because it is generated electronically - meaning that any subsequent analyses will prove accurate and reliable.
Basic toll records typically track the calls between a subscriber (i.e., the target) and other phone numbers, most often with a reliable date, time, and duration. Depending on the type of call, additional data can be gathered, including switch data, cell tower IDs, device identification (serial) numbers, as well as International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) codes.
When analyzing any data, including toll records, certain types of inconsistencies may appear the data such as incomplete connections, third party dialing, and specific types of exchange representations (international country codes, cellular numbers, etc).
Generally, basic telephone toll analysis concepts can also be applied to instant messaging, e-mail logs, and other electronic types of correspondence. More recently, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has been popular but poses a challenge for collecting content. Use of security such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), with strong, 256-bit end-to-end encoding in programs such as Skype, are proving to make this more difficult in the future.
For this example, a law enforcement agency (LEA) has a particular interest in the communication patterns and behavior of a certain individual involved in known criminal activities. Following is a simple representation of the target.
The LEA has performed surveillance and acquired the call-detail records (CDRs) for this target. In the following diagram, the target is shown connected to three (3) numbers which are located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
These linkages represent subscription or usage data for the target. The thickness of each link relates directly to the number of calls made. It clearly shows that the target uses a particular number more often than the other phones. In fact, this phone number represents the target's personal cell phone.
From here, the investigators expand the call network one level based on the CDRs using the VisuaLinks Walk Data feature. The data sources used in this investigation include all of the CDRs as well as a reference to public payphones. If a phone number is found in the public payphone reference data set, the icon for the corresponding VisuaLinks object will display an appropriate icon. In this case, a payphone located in New York City is shown with the special icon.
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The size of the linkages to the payphone represents the largest number of calls for our target.
The investigator wants to learn more about the calling behavior between these two phone numbers. In the next diagram, a transactional model is used to expand the data to show the individual phone calls (e.g., transactions).
Each call is listed with the date and duration, and the color depicts the direction of the call (arrowheads were turned off to minimize the display clutter). Green linkages show inbound calls and blue linkages show outbound calls. The diagram indicates that the payphone receives mostly inbound calls from our target number.
Next, the investigator uses the VisuaLinks object clustering placement features to see if any of the calls were made on the same day.
The circle-of-circles placement shows that there were several days where at least 2 calls were made between the phones and one particular day where 4 calls were made (shown at the 5:00 position in the circle).
These types of situations show the target number calling the payphone and then at a later time, the payphone calling back the target - obviously some type of coordinated effort is occurring to explain this type of activity.
From here, the investigator changes the placement within VisuaLinks to a Temporal Grid to get a better understanding of when the phone calls were made.
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The X axis is based on the day-of-week, so there are 8 columns starting with null
(undefined) and then Sunday - Saturday. The Y axis is based on the week-of-year
so there are 52 rows where the top represents January and the bottom December.
Based on this type of visualization, a few interesting observations can be made:
- There was little activity in the first several months of the year (January-March).
- There was very sporadic activity for the next two months.
- During the summer period, there appears to be a flurry of activity with a mid-week concentration of calls and the first showing of multiple calls within the same week.
- The activity then drops off for the month of July where there were no calls made between these two phones.
- The investigators deem it important to also look at the calling patterns for the other phones to see if there was a concentration or increase of calls to other phones during this period. Alternatively, it simply could be a period of inactivity due to vacation.
- The weekly pattern then picks back up for little over one month, dies back down for another month, and then apparently switches to a pattern of weekend activity (there is an increase in Saturday and Sunday calls).
- Finally, the pattern stops until the last week of the year.
The investigator performs one last check of the data within VisuaLinks to show the cell-tower locations from where the target made the phone calls. For each CDR there is also a cell-tower identification number and a reverse look-up for its latitude/longitude can be acquired using VisuaLinks' powerful data integration functions.
All of the calls originate a little North of Manhattan. Remember, this is a cell-phone based in Washington, DC calling a New York payphone. This diagram proves the target is physically operating out of this area and is most likely coordinating drop points with another criminal associate.
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The type of analysis possible using the data integration and value-added functions within VisuaLinks is virtually unlimited. CDR analysis has become a mainstream function in many law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Large quantities of data spread across multiple data sources are best analyzed using VisuaLinks to see the big picture.
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