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Neal Krawetz, a researcher and computer security consultant, gave an interesting presentation today at the BlackHat security conference in Las Vegas about analyzing digital photographs and video images for alterations and enhancements.

Using a program he wrote (and provided on the conference CD-ROM) Krawetz could print out the quantization tables in a JPEG file (that indicate how the image was compressed) and determine the last tool that created the image — that is, the make and model of the camera if the image is original or the version of Photoshop that was used to alter and re-save the image.

Comparing that data to the metadata embedded in the image he could determine if the photo was original or had been re-saved or altered. Then, using error level analysis of an image he could determine what were the last parts of an image that were added or modified.

Error level analysis involves re-saving an image at a known error rate (90%, for example), then subtracting the re-saved image from the original image to see every pixel that changed and the degree to which it changed. The modified versions will indicate a different error level than the original image.

Talk to Me Like My Father: Frontline Medicine in Afghanistan.

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Oklahoma, determined to uphold its image as a state that begins and ends with a vowel, is now offering Global War on Terrorism license plates that feature a stylized pic of the WTC towers and a ferocious eagle. Take that Osama! Tell me that our custom plates aren’t a worse blow to your jihadism than your capture and trial would be! America will win the war on abstract nouns by Christmas, I tell ya!

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