Amped Software just released another update to Amped Authenticate, the leading forensic software for digital forensic experts to exploit the data behind digital images, allowing analysis of image integrity, authenticity, metadata, source and history, and detection of tampering prior to its use as intelligence and evidence.
Version 15518 now includes many new features: customizable reporting, CRP Comparison, enhanced JPEG Ghost Map filter, Check Sun Position, improved HEIF support, and more.Customizable Reporting
Users can now customize the look and structure of reports generated at the end of your work. Various options are now avaialble to you and can be found under the Generate Report button (under the Tools menu).
CRP Comparison
PRNU Identification is one of the most loved filters in Authenticate. Until now, you could generate a Camera Reference Pattern (CRP) file for a device, and then test images against it to see whether they were compatible with that device’s unique sensor noise. But what if we have two sets of images, and we know that each set has the same source, but we need to assess whether the two source devices are indeed the same? For example, we may have downloaded a set of images from a Facebook profile, and we need to compare the CRP generated from those with the CRP of a bunch of images found in a person’s Whatsapp database. We know both Facebook and Whatsapp downscale and re-compress images, making the image-to-CRP matching more prone to false negatives. This new release now includes a simpler and more robust way of doing that – just create a CRP from each set of images, then click on the new Compare two CRPs button, available in the PRNU Identification filter.
Enhanced JPEG Ghost Map Filter
If someone tampers with JPEG images but then converts the final result to, say, PNG, some Authenticate filters will no longer be able to analyze them, because they’re designed to work with JPEG files. This is not the case for the JPEG Ghosts Map filter since it has the desirable capability of looking for JPEG-related traces of manipulation even on images that have been re-encoded to a different format.
Unfortunately, this filter may occasionally generate noisy maps or false alarms. We’ve been working on improving the way the filter works in order to provide more accurate maps, and we’ve implemented a “self-censoring” system that will generate empty (completely green) maps when unfavorable conditions are detected. You can choose whether to use our new implementation of the filter by setting the new Simplified Model parameter. When you set it to “Yes“, you’ll be using the new version of the algorithm.
New Tool: Check Sun Position for Image Location and Date on Suncalc.org
The location and time metadata stored in images can be valuable, but also easy to tamper with. A clever analyst may choose to check whether the outdoor lighting conditions are consistent with the time and place declared in the image’s metadata. We’ve suggested to our users to got to websites like suncalc.org, which shows the Sun position over a map for the selected date and time. Unfortunately, GPS coordinates need to be converted to decimal values, which can be a bit tricky and error-prone. So we’ve made things even easier for our users – a single click to do it all.
When GPS position and time information are available, just click on this new tool and you’ll be brought to the properly configured page. Internet connection is required, of course.
Improved HEIF Support
The High-Efficiency Image Format (HEIF) is steadily spreading around. Most recent smartphones capture images in this format and possibly convert them to JPEG when you decide to share them. For this reason, we’re investing our energy in providing support for this new format. One of the features of the HEIF container is that it can store multiple primary images (e.g., a “collection” of images), each of which may have one or more thumbnails. When such a “multi-fold” file is loaded, Authenticate will warn the user and load the image marked as “main” in the file container.
We’ve added a tool called Extract Embedded Images From HEIF File under the Tools menu which allows decoding and saving in the bitmap (BMP) format other images stored in the HEIF file.
Don’t Delay – Update Today
If you have an active support plan you can update straight away by going into the menu Help>Check for Updates Online within Amped Authenticate. If you need to renew your SMS plan, please contact us or one of our authorized distributors. And remember that you can always manage your license and requests from the customer support portal.
Read more about this update here.
Contact Amped Software to learn more.
