METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TAMPER PROOF CAMERA LOGS

• US 20130262871A1
• Filed: 05/20/2013
• Published: 10/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Barrus, John, Gormish, Michael, Chemishkian, Sergey
• Granted Patent: US 8,977,860 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/181
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3242 involving keyed hash functions, e.g. message authentication codes [MACs], CBC-MAC or HMAC

Abstract

A method and apparatus for maintaining a tamper proof device log are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises maintaining an embedded log in the device, the embedded log being a chain of log entries. In one embodiment, the method may also comprise publishing at least one log entry to a location external to the device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining a media data file known to have been captured by a media capture device;

obtaining purported media data files alleged to be captured by the media capture device;

extracting log entries from the known media data file; and

verifying authenticity of the purported media data files based on the extracted log entries.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein verifying authenticity further comprises:

calculating a cryptographic hash value of each purported media data file;

comparing cryptographic hash values with the extracted log entries; and

authenticating each purported media data file with a corresponding cryptographic hash value that matches an entry from the extracted log entries.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

extracting log entries from each purported media data file that was authenticated; and

verifying authenticity of remaining purported media data files, if any, based on the log entries extracted from each authenticated purported media data file.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the media data file is a known media data file extracted from the media capture device under a controlled process.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the known media data file includes independently verifiable data about the authenticity of the known media data file.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein verifying authenticity includes verification of one or more of an authenticity of media data, order of capture of the purported media data, a time when purported media data was captured, and a geospatial indication of where purported media data was captured.

7. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions thereon which, when executed by a system, cause the system to perform a method comprising:

obtaining a media data file known to have been captured by a media capture device;

obtaining purported media data files alleged to be captured by the media capture device;

extracting log entries from the known media data file; and

verifying authenticity of the purported media data files based on the extracted log entries.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein verifying authenticity further comprises:

calculating a cryptographic hash value of each purported media data file;

comparing cryptographic hash values with the extracted log entries; and

authenticating each purported media data file with a corresponding cryptographic hash value that matches an entry from the extracted log entries.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 8, further comprising:

extracting log entries from each purported media data file that was authenticated; and

verifying authenticity of remaining purported media data files, if any, based on the log entries extracted from each authenticated purported media data file.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the media data file is a known media data file extracted from the media capture device under a controlled process.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the known media data file includes independently verifiable data about the authenticity of the known media data file.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the log entries are extracted from metadata fields of the known image.