Improvements to time bracketed authentication

TL;DR

This paper introduces techniques for creating audiovisual recordings of significant events that are resistant to falsification, pre-dating, or post-dating, by leveraging the interplay of private and public information, with measures to prevent misuse.

Contribution

It presents novel methods combining private and public data to enhance the integrity of recordings and discusses encryption strategies to mitigate potential abuses.

Findings

Recordings can be made tamper-resistant using the proposed techniques.

The interplay of private and public information enhances authentication.

Encryption reduces risks of misuse such as blackmail or harassment.

Abstract

We describe a collection of techniques whereby audiovisual or other recordings of significant events can be made in a way that hinders falsification, pre-dating, or post-dating by interested parties, even by the makers and operators of the recording equipment. A central feature of these techniques is the interplay between private information, which by its nature is untrustworthy and susceptible to suppression or manipulation by interested parties, and public information, which is too widely known to be manipulated by anyone. While authenticated recordings may be infeasible to falsify, they can be abused in other ways, such as being used for blackmail or harassment; but susceptibility to these abuses can be reduced by encryption and secret sharing.