I am an Assistant Professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Before joining the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in Fall 2014, I was with the IT Security Research Group at the University of Münster, Germany, and a DAAD-funded Post-Doctoral Fellow at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) in Berkeley, California. I hold a PhD (Dr.-Ing.) in Computer Science from TU Dresden, Germany. My PhD was supported by a Deutsche Telekom Stiftung doctoral scholarship.

Research

My research focuses on multimedia security, and particularly on a variety of practical and theoretical problems in the area of (multi)media forensics and counter-forensics.

Multimedia security aims to enforce protection goals (in particular confidentiality and integrity) for or with the help of digital signals, which represent parts of reality. Media forensics, a young and rapidly growing research field, subsumes the development of methods to systematically assess the authenticity of such digital signals based on only a relatively small set of working assumptions. Counter-forensics challenges forensic methods by setting the stage for "intelligent" adversaries, who anticipate that their attempts to let inauthentic signals appear plausible will have to withstand forensic analysis.

My research is funded by NSF under award number #1464275 ("Camera-based mobile device end-user authentication") and by the DARPA MediFor program.

For an introductory discussion, see the book chapters "Media Forensics" and "Counter-Forensics: Attacking Image Forensics" (joint work with Rainer Böhme), and the poster "Camera-based Mobile Device Authentication" presented at the 2017 NSF SaTC PI Meeting.

Teaching

EECE 527: Information Theory (Spring 2017)

An introduction to information theory for signal processing and communication theory. Entropy, mutual information, divergence, channel capacity, hypothesis testing and types.

EECE 402/520: Digital Signal Processing I (Fall 2017)

Covers the general area of discrete-time signals and the analysis and the design of discrete-time systems. Time domain analysis, solutions of difference equations, z-transform analysis, spectral analysis with discrete Fourier transforms, fast Fourier transform. Sampling of continuous-time signals, processing of discrete-time signals using the DFT and FFT. Design and implementation of discrete-time filters.

Students

I am always seeking to work with interested students who have shown outstanding performance in their previous studies and research. I offer firsthand experiences in a dynamic and exciting research field, commensurate with the student's current educational status. If you are currently a Binghamton student (undergraduate or graduate), make an appointment with me or contact me by email.

Highly motivated and qualified graduate students interested in pursuing a PhD degree under my supervision should contact me for details. A strong candidate will have a thorough understanding of basic security concepts as well as a strong background in digital signal processing and/or image/video processing. Some programming fluency will be assumed.

Publications

Linear Filter Kernel Estimation Based on Digital Camera Sensor Noise, with C. Liu, in A.M. Alattar and N.D. Memon (eds.): Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2017, Proceedings of IS&T Electronic Imaging, 2017. [PDF]
PRNU-based Image Manipulation Localization with Discriminative Random Fields, with S. Chakraborty, in A.M. Alattar and N.D. Memon (eds.): Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2017, Proceedings of IS&T Electronic Imaging, 2017. [PDF]
Location Signatures That You Don't See: Highlights from the IEEE Signal Processing Cup 2016 Student Competition, with M. Wu, A. Hajj-Ahmad, Y. Ren, C. Zhang, and P. Campisi, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine 33(5), 2016, pp. 149–156. [Publisher]
Media Forensics, with R. Böhme, in S. Katzenbeisser and F. Peticolas (eds.): Information Hiding, ch. 9, Artech House, 2016, pp. 231–259. [Preprint] [Publisher]
Patch-Based Desynchronization of Digital Camera Sensor Fingerprints, with J. Entrieri, in A.M. Alattar and N.D. Memon (eds.): Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2016, Proceedings of IS&T Electronic Imaging, 2016. [PDF] [Publisher]
Compression Forensics Beyond The First Significant Digit, with S. Chakraborty, in A.M. Alattar and N.D. Memon (eds.): Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2016, Proceedings of IS&T Electronic Imaging, 2016. [PDF] [Publisher]
Fragile Sensor Fingerprint Camera Identification, with E. Quiring, Proceedings of the 7th IEEE International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security (WIFS), 2015. [PDF] [Publisher] [Slides] (Best Student Paper Award)
A Second Look at First Significant Digit Histogram Restoration, with S. Chakraborty, Proceedings of the 7th IEEE International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security (WIFS), 2015. [PDF] [Publisher]
Thinking Beyond the Block: Block Matching for Copy–Move Forgery Detection Revisited, with P. Schöttle and C. Riess, in A.M. Alattar et al. (eds.): Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2015, Proceedings of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol. 9409, 94092, 2015. [PDF] [Publisher] [Slides]
Forensic Camera Model Identification, with T. Gloe, in A.T.S. Ho and S. Li (eds.): Handbook of Digital Forensics of Multimedia Data and Devices, ch. 9, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2015, pp. 331–374. [Publisher] [Preprint available upon request]
The Humming Hum: Background Noise as a Carrier of ENF Artifacts in Mobile Device Audio Recordings, with N. Fechner, in F. Freiling et al. (eds.): IMF 2014, 8th International Conference on IT Security Incident Management & IT Forensics, Münster, Germany, 12–14 May 2014, Conference Proceedings, 2014, pp. 3–13. [PDF] [Publisher]
Forensic Analysis of Video File Formats, with T. Gloe and A. Fischer, Digital Investigation 11(Supplement 1): Proceedings of the First Annual DFRWS Europe, 2014, pp. S68–S76. [PDF] [Publisher]
Steganalysis in Technicolor: Boosting WS Detection of Stego Images from CFA-Interpolated Covers, with R. Böhme, Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2014, pp. 4010–4014. [PDF] [Publisher] [Slides]
Rotation Invariant Localization of Duplicated Image Regions Based on Zernike Moments, with S.-J. Ryu, M.-J. Lee and H.-K. Lee, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 8(8), 2013, pp. 1355–1370. [PDF] [Publisher]
Impeding Forgers at Photo Inception, with P. Winkler and H. Farid, in A.M. Alattar et al. (eds.): Media Watermarking, Security, and Forensics 2013, Proceedings of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol. 8665, 86653, 2013. [PDF] [Publisher] [Slides]
Information Hiding. 14th International Conference, IH 2012, Berkeley, CA, USA, May 2012. Revised Selected Papers, with D. Ghosal (eds.), LNCS 7692, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2013. [Publisher]
Counter-Forensics: Attacking Image Forensics, with R. Böhme, in H.T. Sencar und N.D. Memon (eds.): Digital Image Forensics, Springer, New York, 2013, pp. 327–366. [PDF] [Publisher]
Unexpected Artefacts in PRNU-Based Camera Identification: A ‘Dresden Image Database’ Case-Study, with T. Gloe and S. Pfennig, MM&Sec’12, Proceedings of the 14th ACM Multimedia and Security Workshop, Coventry, UK, September 6–7, 2012, ACM Press, New York, 2012, pp. 109–114. [PDF] [Publisher] [Slides]
Spectral Methods to Determine the Exact Scaling Factor of Resampled Digital Images, with S. Pfennig, Invited Paper for the Special Session "Image Forensics Technologies", 5th International Symposium on Communications, Control, and Signal Processing (ISCCSP), Rome, Italy, May 2–4, 2012. [PDF] [Publisher]
Forensic Analysis of Resampled Digital Signals, PhD Thesis, Technische Universität Dresden, 2011. [Excerpt]
Linear Row and Column Predictors for the Analysis of Resized Images, in MM&Sec'10, Proceedings of the 2010 ACM SIGMM Multimedia & Security Workshop, Rome, Italy, September 9–10, 2010, ACM Press, New York, 2010, pp. 13–18. [PDF] [Publisher] [Slides]
On Detection of Median Filtering in Digital Images, with J. Fridrich, in N.D. Memon et al. (eds.): Media Forensics and Security II, Proceedings of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol. 7541, 754110, 2010. [PDF] [Publisher] [Slides]
Efficient Estimation of CFA Pattern Configuration in Digital Camera Images, in N.D. Memon et al. (eds.): Media Forensics and Security II, Proceedings of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol. 7541, 754111, 2010. [PDF] [Publisher] [Slides]
On Resampling Detection in Re-compressed Images, with T. Gloe, First IEEE Workshop on Information Forensics and Security (WIFS 2009), 2009, pp. 21–25. [PDF] [Publisher] [Slides]
Multimedia Forensics is not Computer Forensics, with R. Böhme, F. Freiling, T. Gloe, in Z. Geradts et al. (eds): Computational Forensics, Third International Workshop, IWCF 2009, The Hague, Netherlands, August 13–14, 2009, Proceedings, LNCS 5718, Springer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, 2009, pp. 90–103. [PDF] [Publisher] [Slides]
Synthesis of Color Filter Array Pattern in Digital Images, with R. Böhme, in E.J. Delp III et al. (eds.): Media Forensics and Security, Proceedings of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol. 7254, 72540K, 2009. [PDF] [Publisher] [Slides]
Hiding Traces of Resampling in Digital Images, with R. Böhme, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 3(4), 2008, pp. 582–592. [PDF] [Publisher]
Fast and Reliable Resampling Detection by Spectral Analysis of Fixed Linear Predictor Residue, in MM&Sec'08, Proceedings of the Mutlimedia & Security Workshop 2008, Oxford, United Kingdom, September 22-23, 2008, ACM Press, New York, 2008, pp. 11–20. [PDF] [Publisher]
On the Detectability of Local Resampling in Digital Images, in E.J. Delp III et al. (eds.): Security, Forensics, Steganography, and Watermarking of Multimedia Contents X, Proceedings of SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging, SPIE Vol. 6819, 68190F, 2008. [Publisher]
Can We Trust Digital Image Forensics?, with R. Böhme, T. Gloe, A. Winkler, in MULTIMEDIA '07: Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Multimedia, September 24–29, 2007, Augsburg, Germany, ACM Press, New York, 2007, pp. 78–86. [PDF] [Publisher]
Tamper Hiding: Defeating Image Forensics, with R. Böhme, in T. Furon et al. (eds.): Information Hiding, 9th International Workshop, IH 2007, Saint Malo, France, June 11–13, 2007, Revised Selected Papers, LNCS 4567, Springer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, 2007, pp. 326–341. [PDF] [Publisher]

Publications in German

Lineare Zeilen- und Spaltenprädiktoren zur Erkennung von Bildskalierungen, in F. Freiling (ed.): Sicherheit 2010, LNI 170, Gesellschaft für Informatik, Bonn, 2010, pp. 117–127. [Slides]
DOCMA Award: Expertensitzung. Den Fälschern auf der Spur, with Doc Baumann, in DOCMA 34, pp. 106–108, May 2010.
Multimedia-Forensik als Teildisziplin der digitalen Forensik, with R. Böhme, F. Freiling, T. Gloe, in S. Fischer et al. (eds): Informatik 2009, LNI 154, Gesellschaft für Informatik, Bonn, 2009, pp. 1537–1551. [PDF] [Publisher] [Abstract] [Slides]
Digitale Forensik - Spuren in Digitalfotos, in Who can you trust? (Proc. of 23rd Chaos Communication Congress), Berlin, December 27-30, 2006. [PDF]

Miscellaneous

I was part of the team "de.tector" that won the first phase of the First IEEE Information Forensics and Security Technical Committee (IFS-TC) Image Forensics Challenge. The contest was organized by the IEEE Signal Processing Society and took place from June to October 2013. In different phases of the contest, participants had to detect and localize image manipulations in a large set of thousands of digital images. With 100% accuracy, the "de.tector" team (Thomas Gloe, Christian Riess, and myself) achieved the best score of all participants already shortly after the begin of the contest. Read more about "how we learned to stop worrying about content and love the metadata" here, and have a look at the presentation of our results at the IEEE Workshop on Information Forensics and Security (WIFS) 2013 in Guangzhou, China.