multimediasecurityandforensics.docVIP

Multimedia Security and Forensics Authentication of Digital Images Sarah A. Summers Sarah C. Wahl Spring 2006 Abstract Over the past few years, digital imaging technology has dramatically increased in popularity, due mainly to the availability of multimedia tools. Although there are many positive aspects to this increased popularity, there is also a negative side with increasing abuse of multimedia products, such as pirating of music, films and software, infringement of copyright and forgery of images. This paper addresses the later, the methods used in producing forgeries, techniques developed to protect digital images and techniques for authenticating digital images. Introduction The term digital multimedia data encompasses a broad range of technology, such as audio files, graphics, images, animation and video to name just a few. In many cases, there is the need to protect multimedia, for example, film and music companies wish to prevent piracy of their products which will result in lost revenue. As a result, various techniques have been developed to ensure authenticity and prevent copyright infringement. An area that is receiving increasing attention is authentication of multimedia for the forensic field, such as would be used in criminal and insurance investigations and court proceedings. Multimedia in these fields tends to be photographic in nature and, the main concern is proving that the photographic images are authentic and have not been tampered with or modified in any way. Image Tampering Tampering with photographic images dates back almost to the time when permanent photographic images were first created. One of the earliest instigators of photographic image tampering was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who, for political reasons, instructed that certain individuals be removed from photographs (Figure 1) [1]. Figure 1: Lenin and Trotsky (left) and the result of photographic tampering (right) that removed, among others, Trotsky [1] Manipulation o