Digital prints
C Numeric prints - is information protection technology that helps to calculate in an arbitrarily large data stream source file: a digital document, video or audio file - even if the content was partially destroyed, hidden or modified. The use of digital prints is closely related to the field of computer information protection and copyright protection.
The use of digital prints in the field of information security
Digital fingerprints are actively used to prevent data leaks when creating a secure information security perimeter. DLP systems work based on data analysis and identification of blocks of information that cannot be transmitted via external communication channels. Several different prints can be created for one file.
In the practice of the work of departments for the protection of computer information, two scenarios for the analysis and recognition of data arrays are used in order to control the activities of users on servers and end devices: proactive (morphological) and reactive. Proactive algorithms analyze document texts, their morphology and syntax, templates. Reactive - searches for the initially set labels in the document. Protection technologies built on these algorithms include:
- Morphological analysis , which uses contextual analysis of documents, searches for words or combinations, sometimes digital information, in the transmitted arrays. This is the best way to search for data in documents with a predefined text sequence.
- Parsing that takes into account word combinations, word order and distance between words. Not often used in DLP systems yet.
- Patterns , or regular expressions: to search for documents, they use sequences of certain data, for example, bank card or passport numbers. Templates can help prevent leakage in most cases, especially if attackers do not share data in a known pattern with extraneous characters.
- Digital prints .
The essence of digital prints technology is that the system administrator creates a library of electronic "casts" of documents or parts of documents. After that, the system checks all files passing through external information transfer channels for compliance with prints. If a match is found, the system will stop the movement of the document and warn the information security specialist.
Fingerprints are not analogous to digital signatures or hashing, which will change when part of the documents is changed. The prints are retained even if the original document is deeply modified. The administrator can thus create data in the library with different degrees of coincidence and different security modes for documents of different levels of confidentiality. Prints can also be created for images. For example, a fingerprint of a scanned copy of a supervisor's signature will prevent the submission of any documents that have it affixed.
In addition to ensuring security in a corporate environment, digital fingerprint technology is used to solve other problems:
- for classification of financial and other documents, automatic determination of their storage locations;
- to save and protect personal data, completely excluding the possibility of their transfer outside. True, this is an extremely time-consuming process: a long-term work is required to identify and enter "casts" into the library;
- in order to audit the content of documents and identify data containing reputational or other risks.
In other words, the digital fingerprint module makes it possible to enhance the functionality of security components to identify specific documents within the system. The work of security departments is simplified, since the screening of unwanted information flows is automatic.
Use of digital prints in copyright
The technology is used not only to protect and prevent data deduplication. Digital prints are used to protect intellectual property and copyright. The technology is able to find a file with the necessary parameters even on YouTube in order to make a demand to stop violating the author's rights.
For a file that needs special protection, you can create several different digital fingerprints, depending on the license under which it is allowed to be used. The content of the print will contain information about the copyright holder and other significant parameters.
Fingerprints cannot be created for public domain materials; materials with a non-exclusive license; game video. It is extremely difficult to create prints for materials that are confusingly similar to similar ones, for example, for remixing, performing songs in karaoke. However, for unique content, digital fingerprints remain one of the best ways to protect them.
Of course, technologies are being developed against digital fingerprint recognition technology that help hide them. But not every thief of a trade secret or a pirate who posts someone else's video on a hosting will be able to correctly use and configure software. Simple archiving or transferring a file to another format does not always allow you to hide the tags. While digital prints remain one of the most effective ways to avoid leaks of confidential documents and unlicensed use of content.
