Alongside the National Security Agency (NSA) and international partners, we have released a joint cybersecurity publication on Content Credentials: Strengthening multimedia integrity in the generative AI era. This publication helps raise awareness of the importance of digital content provenance, the state of current solutions, and steps that can be taken to get started with implementing Content Credentials.
With the rise of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools, it’s possible for anyone to convincingly create or modify images, videos and other digital media with minimal effort and cost. This makes it more difficult to verify the integrity of media content using traditional methods.
The abuse of AI-generated media represents a significant cyber threat to organisations, including impersonation of corporate officers and the use of fraudulent communications to enable access to an organisation’s networks, communications and sensitive information. In addition to these specific threats, the inherent general trust in organisations’ media is quickly eroding. As a result, the need to bolster trust through transparency in media is crucial.
Although technologies, such as watermarking can be used for media provenance, Content Credentials are a rapidly evolving standard that can significantly increase the transparency of media provenance. These standards provide guidance on how software and hardware products – related to the creation, editing, and distribution of media content – record, verify and manage provenance information. Implementing Content Credentials can help end users make informed decisions about the media they consume.
Understanding this technology space and early implementation of Content Credentials can help organisations mitigate the various risks of increasing AI-generated media and deepfakes, and better prepare for a future flooded with synthetic media. With the AI landscape constantly and rapidly evolving, we urge organisations to take the first steps outlined in this publication to preserve media provenance, and to stay engaged in the community to maintain awareness of new security issues and best practices.
Download the full publication to learn more.