Information Forensics and Security: A quarter-century-long journey

TL;DR

This paper reviews the 25-year evolution of Information Forensics and Security, highlighting key technological advances, societal impacts, and future trends in the field within the context of the IEEE Signal Processing Society.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the major developments and landmark contributions in IFS over the past quarter-century, emphasizing the role of the IEEE SPS.

Findings

Significant technological advances in IFS over 25 years

The growth of IFS as a vital research area

Emerging future trends in information forensics and security

Abstract

Information Forensics and Security (IFS) is an active R&D area whose goal is to ensure that people use devices, data, and intellectual properties for authorized purposes and to facilitate the gathering of solid evidence to hold perpetrators accountable. For over a quarter century since the 1990s, the IFS research area has grown tremendously to address the societal needs of the digital information era. The IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) has emerged as an important hub and leader in this area, and the article below celebrates some landmark technical contributions. In particular, we highlight the major technological advances on some selected focus areas in the field developed in the last 25 years from the research community and present future trends.