DV150 Media Authentication and Analysis with Magnet Verify
This two-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform structural comparative analysis on digital image and video files and to articulate expert results in both a report and court of law. Students will learn how to manually decode multimedia files at the binary level, performing authentication examinations using file metadata and structure. We will be working within Magnet Verify.
Description
This two-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform structural comparative analysis on digital image and video files and to articulate expert results in both a report and court of law. Students will learn how to manually decode multimedia files at the binary level, performing authentication examinations using file metadata and structure. We will be working within Magnet Verify.
Course modules
Module 1: Course introduction & Magnet Verify installation
In this introductory module, students will be presented with the learning objectives, goals, and all related course materials for the 2-day training event. The module will conclude with a hands-on exercise during which students will install the desktop application of Magnet Verify, as well as learn how to download the desktop client and create a ZIP file for submission to the online Verify platform.
Module 2: Dashboard overview, project creation, & file submission
This module of instruction will focus on the many features available within the Magnet Verify platform. The students will be given a walkthrough of the dashboard, account and user settings, support functionality, user guide, and additional resources. Students will be shown how to create a Verify project and load files for analysis. Following, students will create all of the projects which will be utilized throughout the course through a hands-on exercise. The project and file homepages will be briefly discussed.
Module 3: Bits, bytes, & encoders
In this module students will explore the building blocks of data encoding. This will include an introduction into bits and bytes, data conversion from binary to decimal to hexadecimal, and an overview of representation information as it relates to the encoding process.This module will conclude with a hands-on exercise during which students will encode and decode raw data utilizing an ASCII table and rapid tables.
Module 4: Magnet Verify – under the hood
This module will cover content-based and non-content-based analysis, and how Magnet Verify fits within the framework of forensic multimedia analysis. Authentication analysis will be discussed with a focus on comprehensive forensic parsing. Students will also learn about the underlying research into structural analysis, which Magnet Verify is built upon, and the process through which Verify creates file signatures and performs comparative analysis against a known reference library of encoders. This module will conclude with a hands-on exercise during which students will perform a one-to-one manual comparison, using the same methodologies that are utilized by Magnet Verify.
Module 5: Image file format & manual authentication concepts
This module covers how JPEG files are encoded and structured, as well as how to identify and interpret individual objects within the structure through use of file format specification documents. This module includes an instructor-led exercise of how to parse an image file at the binary level utilizing a hex editor and concludes with a hands-on exercise during which students will identify the individual objects within an image file and thoroughly parse one of the structures.
Module 6: Analyzing Verify results for image files
Students will explore the Magnet Verify analysis strategy as it pertains to image files and be introduced to the data interpretation workflow. Structural analysis, embedded file metadata, attribute similarity analysis, structural consistency tests, proprietary and unknown structures, and the interactive viewer will be discussed in terms of image authenticity analysis. This module includes several in-depth instructor-led and student hands-on exercises involving JPEG files.
Module 7: Video file format & manual authentication concepts
This module covers how video files are encoded and structured, as well as how to identify and interpret individual objects within the structure through use of file format specification documents. This module includes an instructor-led exercise of how to parse a video file at the binary level utilizing a hex editor and concludes with a hands-on exercise during which students will identify the individual objects within a video file, outlining the file structure and locating objects that are embedded within other objects.
Module 8: Analyzing Verify results for video files
Students will explore the Magnet Verify analysis strategy as it pertains to video files and be introduced to the data interpretation workflow. Structural analysis, embedded file metadata, attribute similarity analysis, structural consistency tests, proprietary and unknown structures, and the interactive viewer will be discussed in terms of video authenticity analysis. This module includes several in-depth instructor-led and student hands-on exercises involving video files.
Module 9: Report production & legal proceedings
In this module, students will learn about the scientific validity of Magnet Verify and how to relay the concepts of deterministic versus probabilistic results. Legal admissibility standards and their various elements will be discussed. Students will also learn how to scope their examinations, how to produce a report within the Verify platform, and about opinion-based reporting. The proper terminology, as well as various factors which can add weight to expressed opinions, will be covered.
Module 10: Case studies with Verify
This module provides students with the opportunity to practice everything that they have learned throughout the course through several hands-on case study scenarios involving both image and video files. Students will perform authentication analyses, utilizing Magnet Verify to answer specific questions about submitted multimedia files.
Module 11: Tool validation & data verification
In this module, students will learn about the importance of tool validation and data verification. Different elements that can be built into a validation plan will be discussed. This module includes an instructor-led exercise of how to manually verify a metadata value parsed by Verify from a video file and concludes with a hands-on exercise during which students will also manually verify individual metadata values.
Module 12: Exam preparation
This final instructional module of the course focuses on preparation for the Magnet Certified Authenticity Examiner (MCAE) certification test. Several questions with the same general theme of those included in the certification test will be covered to ensure that students fully understand the concepts. Course overview
This two-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform structural comparative analysis on digital image and video files and to articulate expert results in both a report and court of law. Students will learn how to manually decode multimedia files at the binary level, performing authentication examinations using file metadata and structure. We will be working within Magnet Verify.