Image and Video Forensics

Nowadays, images and videos have become the main modalities of information being exchanged in everyday life, and their pervasiveness has led the image forensics community to question their reliability, integrity, confidentiality, and security. Multimedia contents are generated in many different ways through the use of consumer electronics and high-quality digital imaging devices, such as smartphones, digital cameras, tablets, and wearable and IoT devices. The ever-increasing convenience of image acquisition has facilitated instant distribution and sharing of digital images on digital social platforms, determining a great amount of exchange data. Moreover, the pervasiveness of powerful image editing tools has allowed the manipulation of digital images for malicious or criminal ends, up to the creation of synthesized images and videos with the use of deep learning techniques. In response to these threats, the multimedia forensics community has produced major research efforts regarding the identification of the source and the detection of manipulation. In all cases (e.g., forensic investigations, fake news debunking, information warfare, and cyberattacks) where images and videos serve as critical evidence, forensic technologies that help to determine the origin, authenticity, and integrity of multimedia content can become essential tools. This book aims to collect a diverse and complementary set of articles that demonstrate new developments and applications in image and video forensics to tackle new and serious challenges to ensure media authenticity

User acceptance of systems for archiving and securing degree certificates and related documents.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Changing economic circumstances have led to the investigation of alternative solutions to economic problems. This has had an impact on communities who see academic qualifications as a solution to securing employment. With the increase in job opportunities requiring suitable qualifications, an increase in ‘qualification competition’ has occurred. This has resulted in academic qualifications being seen as a ‘key’ to securing employment. Unfortunately, such a perception has caused many individuals to pursue opportunities using ‘quick fix’ solutions and acquiring academic qualifications through breaches of security around these qualifications. Higher Education is one of the many sectors that is battling with security issues of this type. In South Africa alone, for the past few years, there has been a considerable increase in cases of persons who have been found to have faked either their senior certificates or university degrees, including doctorates. This is becoming a growing concern as it taints the image of the higher education sector in South Africa, and places at risk international relationshipsin higher education and beyond that the country has enjoyed over many years. Many education sectors are based on security systems in which the basic data of a person’s name and surname, for example, are retained when they graduateand the qualification they have legitimately received is recorded. This data is used when a re-print of a certificate is required. Though this method has been working well for some time, it has developed major flaws, in line with the sophistication of information and communications technology in general. This applies especially to the ability to edit e-versions of a certificate using image processing software. Thus, proper verification of the data captured in an e-version or hardcopy of a certificate (when reprinted, for example), represents an increasing risk, and, in some cases, results in a breach of security. Furthermore, some individuals have found ways to e-edit and print their own certificates, which look effectively identical to the authenticated certificates. While the emerging trend in various sectors is to store all data using the appropriate technology tools as a security measure for protecting information, organizations are becoming exposed to cybercrimes. As a result, data security has increasingly become a cause for concern. What is most disturbing, is that computer security breaches have increased, and in many cases, shown to be the result of ‘insider misuse and abuse’ of the information security measures established by an organization. It is for this reason that the current study and the work reported in this thesis has been undertaken and involves a focus on understanding what causes users to accept and follow an organization’s information systems security measures. The study is informed by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), as a framework to explore securing and archiving academic transcripts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). The results showed that the intention of the UKZN staff to use the system positively, relates to their performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions. The use of UTAUT in a mixed methods study within an academic environment assesses the existing measures of securing and archiving academic transcripts and identifies various weaknesses in the current system. Based on the findings of the study, the steganographic method is demonstrated and suggested as an improved method of securing and archiving academic certificates at UKZN. The original contribution is an in-depth study at UKZN that answered the user acceptance research questions and demonstrated the practical application of the steganographic method in securing and archiving data

The Transformative Power of the Copy

This volume offers a fresh perspective on the copy and the practice of copying, two topics that, while the focus of much academic discussion in recent decades, have been underrepresented in the discourse on transculturality. Here, experts from a wide range of academic disciplines present their views on the copy from a transcultural perspective, seeking not to define the copy uniformly, but to reveal its dynamic and transformative power. The copy and the practice of copying are thus presented as constituents of transculturality via thought-provoking contributions on topics spanning time periods from antiquity to the present, and regions from Asia to Europe. In so doing, these contributions aim to create the basis for a novel, interdisciplinary discourse on the copy and its transcultural impact throughout history

The Transformative Power of the Copy

This volume offers a fresh perspective on the copy and the practice of copying, two topics that, while the focus of much academic discussion in recent decades, have been underrepresented in the discourse on transculturality. Here, experts from a wide range of academic disciplines present their views on the copy from a transcultural perspective, seeking not to define the copy uniformly, but to reveal its dynamic and transformative power. The copy and the practice of copying are thus presented as constituents of transculturality via thought-provoking contributions on topics spanning time periods from antiquity to the present, and regions from Asia to Europe. In so doing, these contributions aim to create the basis for a novel, interdisciplinary discourse on the copy and its transcultural impact throughout history

Shortest Route at Dynamic Location with Node Combination-Dijkstra Algorithm

Abstract— Online transportation has become a basic requirement of the general public in support of all activities to go to work, school or vacation to the sights. Public transportation services compete to provide the best service so that consumers feel comfortable using the services offered, so that all activities are noticed, one of them is the search for the shortest route in picking the buyer or delivering to the destination. Node Combination method can minimize memory usage and this methode is more optimal when compared to A* and Ant Colony in the shortest route search like Dijkstra algorithm, but can’t store the history node that has been passed. Therefore, using node combination algorithm is very good in searching the shortest distance is not the shortest route. This paper is structured to modify the node combination algorithm to solve the problem of finding the shortest route at the dynamic location obtained from the transport fleet by displaying the nodes that have the shortest distance and will be implemented in the geographic information system in the form of map to facilitate the use of the system. Keywords— Shortest Path, Algorithm Dijkstra, Node Combination, Dynamic Location (key words