Associated Press story on Adobe & anti-currency-counterfeiting
Nicol So
Adobe products:
As can be expected, details of the technology are not available. But it
would be an interesting exercise to guess how the technology works,
based on the constraints of the problem.
Just to start a discussion, I will state my *guess*. My guess is that it
is based on digital watermarking. A watermark-based approach has several
advantages.
First, it is possible to detect partial images of paper money, assuming
that multiple watermarks are embedded in each bill.
Second, the technology can detect redesigned currencies, so long as the
new designs bear the same watermark as the old ones. This potential
advantage raises an interesting question: if the secret technology is
indeed based on watermarks, does it mean that governments are already
quietly embbeding watermarks in paper money?
Third, trying to make a printing plate for counterfeiting *by hand* may
be nearly impossible, since the human eye cannot detect the embedded
watermarks.
Assuming the detection aspect of the technology works, it would be
interesting to speculate on what *else* it may do. For example, does it
make the processed images traceable?
--
Nicol So
Disclaimer: Views expressed here are casual comments and should
not be relied upon as the basis for decisions of consequence.
John A. Malley
> An interesting story about a secret anti-counterfeiting technology in
> Adobe products:
>
> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=562&ncid=738&e=10&u=/ap/20040110/ap_on_hi_te/copying_dollars
>
>
> As can be expected, details of the technology are not available. But it
> would be an interesting exercise to guess how the technology works,
> based on the constraints of the problem.
>
> Just to start a discussion, I will state my *guess*. My guess is that it
> is based on digital watermarking.
A google search revealed Adobe licensed digital watermark technology
from Digimarc (http://www.digimarc.com), a company focused on digital
watermarked-based approaches to content access/copying protection. On
its web site, Digimarc claims "Adobe, Hewlett-Packard, Macrovision,
Philips, Hitachi, Pioneer, NEC, International Paper, many of the world's
leading central banks and government agencies worldwide" as parterres or
customers, and thus users of their patented digital watermarking
technologies. Digimarc states "All are leading the way in deploying
digital watermarking-based solutions that protect, secure and enhance
the value of their products and assets."
Digimarc provides specifically "value documents" digital watermarking
technology, quoting liberally from their web site:
"Financial instruments are at the heart of national and international
commerce. Even as the world drives to digital, cash is still king and
checks continue to be cleared in the 10's of billions each year. Yet the
growth of digital imaging, in both consumer and professional markets,
has set out a new central challenge: how to maintain document integrity
and citizen confidence while deterring fraud and counterfeiting.
Mitigating the digital threat to value documents is a top focus of
Digimarc's. We address two primary areas:
* Detecting genuine documents and identifying data alteration
* Deterring digital counterfeiting
Digimarc is engaged in a multi-year relationship with an international
consortium of leading central banks to develop and deploy a system for
deterring the use of personal computers in banknote counterfeiting.
[Checks] As we expand our value document offerings, Digimarc is
committed to enabling the public and private sector financial
infrastructure with technology that offers high-speed machine processing
and point of sale inspection of checks, money orders and other financial
instruments to detect fraud attempts through data alteration and
counterfeiting.
It is clear that as check truncation, electronic check processing, and
infrastructure evolution takes place, the "image" of the value document
will take on a new and critical role. Digimarc is engaged and poised to
provide image survivable security features to help with these new
challenges.
Security printers, document issuers, and financial institutions are
encouraged to contact us for more information on Digimarc's value
document security offerings."
> A watermark-based approach has several
> advantages.
>
> First, it is possible to detect partial images of paper money, assuming
> that multiple watermarks are embedded in each bill.
>
> Second, the technology can detect redesigned currencies, so long as the
> new designs bear the same watermark as the old ones. This potential
> advantage raises an interesting question: if the secret technology is
> indeed based on watermarks, does it mean that governments are already
> quietly embbeding watermarks in paper money?
>
> Third, trying to make a printing plate for counterfeiting *by hand* may
> be nearly impossible, since the human eye cannot detect the embedded
> watermarks.
Your hypothesis is most probably correct!
Digimarc graciously makes a list of all of its digital watermarking
technology US Patents available on its web site. ( See
http://www.digimarc.com/licensing/patents.asp and
http://www.digimarc.com/licensing/patent_list.asp?chkAntiCount=1 )
Here is a summary of Digimarc's US Patent #6,427,020:
"Methods and devices for recognizing banknotes and responding accordingly"
Issued: July 30, 2002
Abstract
Line art on a banknote or other security document is slightly changed to
effect the encoding of plural-bit digital data (i.e. the banknote is
digitally watermarked). When such a banknote is thereafter scanned, the
resulting image data can be recognized as corresponding to a banknote by
detection of the encoded data. (Alternatively, the image data can be
recognized as corresponding to a banknote by machine detection of other
forms of watermarking, or by reference to visible structures
characteristic of banknotes.) In response to detection of a banknote,
the detecting apparatus (e.g., a scanner, photocopier, or printer) can
intervene so as to prevent or deter counterfeiting. For example, the
apparatus can interrupt a copying operation, and display a message
reminding the operator that it is illegal to reproduce currency. Another
option is to dial a remote service and report the attempted reproduction
of a banknote. Yet another option is to permit the copying, but to
insert forensic tracer data (e.g. steganographically encoded binary
data) in the resultant copy. The tracer data can memorialize the serial
number of the machine that made the copy and/or the date and time the
copy was made. To address privacy concerns, such tracer data is not
normally inserted in photocopied output, but is so inserted only when
the subject being photocopied is detected as being a banknote.
Categories: Anti-Counterfeiting
>
> Assuming the detection aspect of the technology works, it would be
> interesting to speculate on what *else* it may do. For example, does it
> make the processed images traceable?
>
The technology addressed by US Patent 6,427,020 addresses that option,
but recommends against it for copied banknotes. It is possible per the
patent. And yes, the bills must already be watermarked (in some fashion)
quietly by the responsible government for this scheme to work. :-)
John A. Malley
10266...@compuserve.com
Paul Rubin
> The technology addressed by US Patent 6,427,020 addresses that option,
> but recommends against it for copied banknotes. It is possible per the
> patent. And yes, the bills must already be watermarked (in some
> fashion) quietly by the responsible government for this scheme to
> work. :-)
Ehh, I think it's enough for the program to just look for some simple
features in the image. I've heard that some color photocopiers refuse
to copy anything the size of a dollar bill with too much green in it,
for example. Fancy watermarks aren't needed.
John A. Malley
[...]
I forgot my last (and IMO most important) comment before posting.
In theory, an Adversary capable of defeating technologies like these
embedded in firmware (secure printers and copiers) or in software (Adobe
Photoshop) is anyone with the time, tools and money to reverse-engineer
and/or decompile the code and to patch it to remove the step or steps
that block copying or insert tracer information. <joke> Better yet, the
counterfeiter gets a crew to do up front and pays them later with bogus
cash. :-) </joke> DMCA may make it crime to do this, but counterfeiters
intend to commit crimes anyway. DMCA won't deter such an Adversary. The
Adversary "wins" as long as the profit from counterfeiting (counterfeit
bills, selling/bartering access to counterfeiting printers or software
platforms, or selling/bartering modified firmware) exceeds the cost of
reverse-engineering the protection (reverse-engineering tasks, law
enforcement avoidance by stealth, bribe and recruitment).
John A. Malley
10266...@compuserve.com
John A. Malley
I've heard the same but never had the pleasure of using such a
photocopier to see it in action for myself. (It would be fun to see it
in action, but then again I can be easily amused. :-) ) It's a very
broad preventative and that's a problem for some users.
You are right, anti-counterfeiting technologies do not require a digital
watermark in the banknote. The specificity of the scheme in US Patent
6,427,020 relies on a watermark (digital or some other means) in the
banknote to fine-tune detection and rejection.
The article Nicol So referenced implies the banknote recognition is
specific, and I assume it is rejecting specific banknotes and accepting
grossly similar images. I tired to get details from the Adobe on-line
users forum but don't have an account and didn't want to establish one.
John A. Malley
10266...@compuserve.com
Nicol So
> Ehh, I think it's enough for the program to just look for some simple
> features in the image. I've heard that some color photocopiers refuse
> to copy anything the size of a dollar bill with too much green in it,
> for example. Fancy watermarks aren't needed.
A simple and fragile scheme like that might make sense when digital
watermark detection could not be implemented cheaply. It doesn't make
sense to incorporate it in advanced image editing software. The
particular scheme you described can be defeated by embedding the bill to
be copied in a non-white background (Christmas gift wraps come to mind).
Matthew Skala
Nicol So <anon...@no.spam.please> wrote:
>Assuming the detection aspect of the technology works, it would be
>interesting to speculate on what *else* it may do. For example, does it
>make the processed images traceable?
Some technical details of the technology in question are discussed by
Markus Kuhn in a posting on the Adobe users' BBS; that site is
registration-only, but his posting is reproduced on Slashdot at this URL:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=91981&threshold=-1&commentsort=0&tid=152&mode=thread&cid=7914236
I also discuss it in recent postings on my blogs:
http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/lebwog.html
http://www.livejournal.com/users/mskala/
The technology depends on looking for patterns of coloured rings a couple
millimetres in diameter. There's a specific pattern of five of them which
Kuhn calls the "EURion Constellation", which appears on all the known
examples of banknotes that trigger the block. Kuhn reports that at least
one colour photocopier will block an image consisting of just the five
circles in the magic pattern. He reports it on Euro notes, British
pounds, some Swedish and German banknotes, and the new-design US $20 note.
I have also found it on Canadian $5 and $10 notes (the new-design ones;
images of these are at http://www.livejournal.com/users/mskala/7727.html ).
There are dozens of US patents covering schemes for preventing copiers from
copying banknotes, but I haven't been able to find a specific one I could
link with this system, nor any information on it other than the media
coverage, Kuhn's posting, and what I was able to discover for myself.
I did find a nice way of describing the magic pattern: four of the rings
are at the 12, 4, 6, and 9 o'clock positions around an imaginary circle of
radius 3.5 units, and then the fifth is at the 5 o'clock position, 1 unit
away from the centre of the circle. That seems slightly reminiscent of some
of the concepts discussed in US Patent 5,845,008, although I wasn't able to
find anything in there that exactly matched what I've observed of the magic
pattern on banknotes.
--
Matthew Skala
msk...@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca Embrace and defend.
http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/