Developer Documents Waves of Suspicious GitHub Followers Using Longitudinal Data Analysis
A developer noticed repeated waves of unusual GitHub follower accounts over several weeks, each sharing strikingly similar characteristics such as synchronized repository creation, identical follow lists, and matching commit histories. Rather than making subjective judgments about authenticity, the investigator treated the activity as an evidence problem and launched a public longitudinal study called CF-GH-FOLLOW-02. Analysis of five initial accounts revealed 299 repositories created at near-identical intervals, with Jaccard similarity scores of 1.000 across all account pairs for their first 100 follows. A shared commit trailer — Co-authored-by: nancodero — appeared across sampled repository histories from different accounts, suggesting a common automated workflow. The investigation distinguishes between observable facts, reasonable inferences, and campaign linkage, while deliberately stopping short of attributing the activity to any specific individual.
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