Image Forensics: An interview with Hany Farid

SiliconValley has an interview with image forensics researcher Hany Farid. My favorite excerpt was this:

Farid first conceived of the possibilities of digital forensics while at MIT, waiting in the checkout line at the library. Restless, he picked up a copy of the Federal Rules of Evidence, then started randomly reading. What he saw startled him: Film and digital images were equivalent evidence, in the eyes of the court.

"This just seemed like a bad idea,'' he said. "Not that I'm good at seeing the future — but I could tell this would be a problem."

Of course, susceptibility to tampering is not the only thing to be considered when evaluating the relative merits of digital imagery as evidence, but it is obvious that tampering with a digital copy is easier to do and (possibly) get away with than tampering with film or tape.

Enjoy!