Media Authentication with Segment-Level Signatures for Alteration Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing media content authentication systems are inadequate in detecting alterations at a granular level, particularly in clips, and do not provide sufficient security against manipulation, which can lead to the spread of misinformation and unauthorized modifications.
Innovation Solution
A system using a public/private key pair for media content items, where each segment, such as IDR frames, is signed and verified, allowing detection of specific alterations and ensuring authenticity through a decentralized identity authority or blockchain, with permissions for authorized modifications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If segment-level signing and verification is implemented, then detection precision of alterations is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The media content item is divided into multiple segments (e.g., video segments, audio segments, individual frames or groups of pictures). Each segment is independently signed with a digital signature corresponding to its specific content characteristics. This segmentation enables precise detection of alterations at the segment level rather than requiring whole-content verification, thereby improving detection precision while managing complexity through modular processing.
2Reliability
If digital signature verification is performed on media content, then reliability of authentication is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
Digital signatures are generated and embedded in the media content item during the content creation or distribution phase, before the content reaches the end user. This preliminary action ensures that authentication data is already in place, allowing for rapid verification at playback without requiring time-consuming real-time analysis of the entire media content, thus maintaining high reliability while reducing processing time.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of verifying the entire media content item, the system performs verification on selected segments or key segments (e.g., IDR frames, segment boundaries). This partial verification approach provides sufficient reliability for authentication purposes while significantly reducing the time and computational resources required compared to full-content verification.
3Reliability
If embedded signature data is added to media content, then security against manipulation is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The embedding mechanism is designed to work with various media formats (video, audio, different codecs) and distribution platforms through a universal interface. The signature data is embedded in a standardized manner that can be integrated into existing media production workflows without requiring separate complex systems for different content types, thereby improving security while minimizing the increase in manufacturing complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
A content owner registers with an identity authority by providing information about the content owner and a public key of a public/private key pair. The content owner registers content to the identity authority and signs the multiple segments of the content with the private key of the public/private key pair. A system that receives the signed content determines an indicated content owner of the received media content and communicates with the identity authority to confirm that the media content was produced by the indicated content owner. The receiving system requests the public key of the content owner from the identity authority and uses the public key to verify the signature of each media content segment. Accordingly, the receiving system is able to determine if the media content was manipulated after being distributed by the content owner.