Vol. 30, No. 4, #7. Smoke and Mirrors: The Fabrication and Alteration of Electronic Evidence.

• Author: Author: Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. Simek

Wyoming Bar Journal

2007.

Vol. 30, No. 4, #7.

Smoke and Mirrors: The Fabrication and Alteration of Electronic Evidence

Issue: August, 2007 Author: Sharon D. Nelson, Esq. and John W. SimekSmoke and Mirrors: The Fabrication and Alteration of Electronic EvidenceSufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

- Arthur C. Clarke

Welcome to the Digital Tech Fun House of the next millennium. Does some putz at NBC want Katie Couric to look 20 pounds slimmer? A wave of his electronic wand, and it is so. Does a Reuters freelance photographer in Beirut want his photos of violent explosions to have a greater "shock and awe" factor? No sweat - he just uses a graphics program to darken the explosions. Mad at your former lover and want to put her head on a porn queen's body and post it on your website? A quick cut and paste . . . presto change-o . . . . it is done.

Nothing in the world is really new, so they say. In truth, the alteration of photos is an old story - remember all the UFO photos of the 50s that turned out to be an aluminum wrapped, gussied up version of Mom's dinner plate? If you don't, shame on you for being so young!

The digital alterations of things can be charming - witness the use of digital alteration in Forrest Gump to make him a part of history. Absolutely inspired. Then look again - at Time magazine's bizarre editorial decision to artificially darken O.J. Simpson's face on its cover. Dispiriting how far we, as a society, have not come.

Someone, presumably not a Kerry fan, stitched together two separate photos to make a composite allegedly showing him speaking with Jane Fonda at an anti-war rally. When you see the original photos, you can see what happened. But barring that, your eyes would likely believe what they see - and therein lies the great danger of accepting things electronic as real.

How do the pros spot digital alteration? Often, by blowing things up. When viewed at the pixel level, doctored photos don't "fit." Rarely does anyone doctor photos with so much precision that the doctoring can't be seen when enlarged. What is not apparent to the naked eye becomes readily apparent when looking at a photo under the equivalent of a microscope. Today, there are even mathematical algorithms to help determine whether a photo has been altered.

There are harmless and even fun uses for digital alteration - a charming but fake photo of President Clinton in a pink tutu, which made the Internet rounds some years ago, comes immediately to mind. But there are grave uses, many with criminal complications. The most common one, by a country mile, is e-mail spoofing.

E-mail Spoofing: Who Do You Want to Be Today?

Stealing someone's identity by using their e-mail address is done all the time - the average 13 year old knows how to create and transmit falsified e-mail. Look at all the spam that we receive every day, where the messages appear to come from people we know or from what appear to be otherwise legitimate sources. Viruses and worms are also known to gather e-mail addresses from an infected machine and send messages appearing to come...