DARPA Program Targets Image Doctoring (networkworld.com)

coondoggie writes: It isn't hard for just about anyone to change or alter an image these days — and that can be a problem. It's an issue researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency want to put to rest with a new program called Media Forensics, or MediFor, which looks to build an algorithmic-based platform that can detect image manipulation. "The forensic tools used today lack robustness and scalability and address only some aspects of media authentication; an end-to-end platform to perform a complete and automated forensic analysis does not exist. Although there are a few applications for image manipulation detection in the commercial sector, they are typically limited to a yes/no decision about the source being an "original" asset, obtained directly from an imaging device. As a result, media authentication is typically performed manually using a variety of ad hoc methods that are often more art than science, and forensics analysts rely heavily on their own background and experience," DARPA states.

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Novel Explores this Idea

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Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion

I've written a science fiction novel, The NPC that deals with the ramifications of this sort of thing. The solution in the novel is extreme: all recording devices are required to stream their data to a trusted 3rd party (in this case, a corporation called VuDyne) in real time with an encrypted certificate. Otherwise the digital data is not trusted to represent reality. As you can imagine, this gives VuDyne a great deal of power.