1,555 research outputs found
Color-decoupled photo response non-uniformity for digital image forensics
The last few years have seen the use of photo response non-uniformity noise (PRNU), a unique fingerprint of imaging sensors, in various digital forensic applications such as source device identification, content integrity verification and authentication. However, the use of a colour filter array for capturing only one of the three colour components per pixel introduces colour interpolation noise, while the existing methods for extracting PRNU provide no effective means for addressing this issue. Because the artificial colours obtained through the colour interpolation process is not directly acquired from the scene by physical hardware, we expect that the PRNU extracted from the physical components, which are free from interpolation noise, should be more reliable than that from the artificial channels, which carry interpolation noise. Based on this assumption we propose a Couple-Decoupled PRNU (CD-PRNU) extraction method, which first decomposes each colour channel into 4 sub-images and then extracts the PRNU noise from each sub-image. The PRNU noise patterns of the sub-images are then assembled to get the CD-PRNU. This new method can prevent the interpolation noise from propagating into the physical components, thus improving the accuracy of device identification and image content integrity verification
Are Social Networks Watermarking Us or Are We (Unawarely) Watermarking Ourself?
In the last decade, Social Networks (SNs) have deeply changed many aspects of
society, and one of the most widespread behaviours is the sharing of pictures.
However, malicious users often exploit shared pictures to create fake profiles
leading to the growth of cybercrime. Thus, keeping in mind this scenario,
authorship attribution and verification through image watermarking techniques
are becoming more and more important. In this paper, firstly, we investigate
how 13 most popular SNs treat the uploaded pictures, in order to identify a
possible implementation of image watermarking techniques by respective SNs.
Secondly, on these 13 SNs, we test the robustness of several image watermarking
algorithms. Finally, we verify whether a method based on the Photo-Response
Non-Uniformity (PRNU) technique can be successfully used as a watermarking
approach for authorship attribution and verification of pictures on SNs. The
proposed method is robust enough in spite of the fact that the pictures get
downgraded during the uploading process by SNs. The results of our analysis on
a real dataset of 8,400 pictures show that the proposed method is more
effective than other watermarking techniques and can help to address serious
questions about privacy and security on SNs.Comment: 43 pages, 6 figure
Assentication: User Deauthentication and Lunchtime Attack Mitigation with Seated Posture Biometric
Biometric techniques are often used as an extra security factor in
authenticating human users. Numerous biometrics have been proposed and
evaluated, each with its own set of benefits and pitfalls. Static biometrics
(such as fingerprints) are geared for discrete operation, to identify users,
which typically involves some user burden. Meanwhile, behavioral biometrics
(such as keystroke dynamics) are well suited for continuous, and sometimes more
unobtrusive, operation. One important application domain for biometrics is
deauthentication, a means of quickly detecting absence of a previously
authenticated user and immediately terminating that user's active secure
sessions. Deauthentication is crucial for mitigating so called Lunchtime
Attacks, whereby an insider adversary takes over (before any inactivity timeout
kicks in) authenticated state of a careless user who walks away from her
computer. Motivated primarily by the need for an unobtrusive and continuous
biometric to support effective deauthentication, we introduce PoPa, a new
hybrid biometric based on a human user's seated posture pattern. PoPa captures
a unique combination of physiological and behavioral traits. We describe a low
cost fully functioning prototype that involves an office chair instrumented
with 16 tiny pressure sensors. We also explore (via user experiments) how PoPa
can be used in a typical workplace to provide continuous authentication (and
deauthentication) of users. We experimentally assess viability of PoPa in terms
of uniqueness by collecting and evaluating posture patterns of a cohort of
users. Results show that PoPa exhibits very low false positive, and even lower
false negative, rates. In particular, users can be identified with, on average,
91.0% accuracy. Finally, we compare pros and cons of PoPa with those of several
prominent biometric based deauthentication techniques
Multibiometric security in wireless communication systems
This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 05/08/2010.This thesis has aimed to explore an application of Multibiometrics to secured wireless communications. The medium of study for this purpose included Wi-Fi, 3G, and
WiMAX, over which simulations and experimental studies were carried out to assess the performance. In specific, restriction of access to authorized users only is provided by a technique referred to hereafter as multibiometric cryptosystem. In brief, the system is built upon a complete challenge/response methodology in order to obtain a high level of security on the basis of user identification by fingerprint and further confirmation by verification of the user through text-dependent speaker recognition.
First is the enrolment phase by which the database of watermarked fingerprints with
memorable texts along with the voice features, based on the same texts, is created by sending them to the server through wireless channel.
Later is the verification stage at which claimed users, ones who claim are genuine, are verified against the database, and it consists of five steps. Initially faced by the identification level, one is asked to first present oneâs fingerprint and a memorable word, former is watermarked into latter, in order for system to authenticate the fingerprint and verify the validity of it by retrieving the challenge for accepted user.
The following three steps then involve speaker recognition including the user
responding to the challenge by text-dependent voice, server authenticating the response, and finally server accepting/rejecting the user.
In order to implement fingerprint watermarking, i.e. incorporating the memorable word as a watermark message into the fingerprint image, an algorithm of five steps has been developed. The first three novel steps having to do with the fingerprint
image enhancement (CLAHE with 'Clip Limit', standard deviation analysis and
sliding neighborhood) have been followed with further two steps for embedding, and
extracting the watermark into the enhanced fingerprint image utilising Discrete
Wavelet Transform (DWT).
In the speaker recognition stage, the limitations of this technique in wireless
communication have been addressed by sending voice feature (cepstral coefficients)
instead of raw sample. This scheme is to reap the advantages of reducing the
transmission time and dependency of the data on communication channel, together
with no loss of packet. Finally, the obtained results have verified the claims
Content Authentication for Neural Imaging Pipelines: End-to-end Optimization of Photo Provenance in Complex Distribution Channels
Forensic analysis of digital photo provenance relies on intrinsic traces left
in the photograph at the time of its acquisition. Such analysis becomes
unreliable after heavy post-processing, such as down-sampling and
re-compression applied upon distribution in the Web. This paper explores
end-to-end optimization of the entire image acquisition and distribution
workflow to facilitate reliable forensic analysis at the end of the
distribution channel. We demonstrate that neural imaging pipelines can be
trained to replace the internals of digital cameras, and jointly optimized for
high-fidelity photo development and reliable provenance analysis. In our
experiments, the proposed approach increased image manipulation detection
accuracy from 45% to over 90%. The findings encourage further research towards
building more reliable imaging pipelines with explicit provenance-guaranteeing
properties.Comment: Camera ready + supplement, CVPR'1
Are Social Networks Watermarking Us or Are We (Unawarely) Watermarking Ourself?
In the last decade, Social Networks (SNs) have deeply changed many aspects of society, and one of the most widespread behaviours is the sharing of pictures. However, malicious users often exploit shared pictures to create fake profiles, leading to the growth of cybercrime. Thus, keeping in mind this scenario, authorship attribution and verification through image watermarking techniques are becoming more and more important. In this paper, we firstly investigate how thirteen of the most popular SNs treat uploaded pictures in order to identify a possible implementation of image watermarking techniques by respective SNs. Second, we test the robustness of several image watermarking algorithms on these thirteen SNs. Finally, we verify whether a method based on the Photo-Response Non-Uniformity (PRNU) technique, which is usually used in digital forensic or image forgery detection activities, can be successfully used as a watermarking approach for authorship attribution and verification of pictures on SNs. The proposed method is sufficiently robust, in spite of the fact that pictures are often downgraded during the process of uploading to the SNs. Moreover, in comparison to conventional watermarking methods the proposed method can successfully pass through different SNs, solving related problems such as profile linking and fake profile detection. The results of our analysis on a real dataset of 8400 pictures show that the proposed method is more effective than other watermarking techniques and can help to address serious questions about privacy and security on SNs. Moreover, the proposed method paves the way for the definition of multi-factor online authentication mechanisms based on robust digital features
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