While some instances of deepfakes or manipulated video are easier to spot, other alterations to video can be seamless to the viewer because they don’t involve obvious changes in the video footage. For example, altering the timestamp of a video clip to a different day or time can provide incorrect information about when the event occurred. Taking out specific frames of a video clip from an event can remove the event or person of interest in the video, causing the clip to inaccurately portray an event.

Challenges trust in video evidence

This ability to alter video can ultimately pose significant challenges to organisational trust in video evidence and the industry’s ability to maintain the authenticity of surveillance footage. This can have severe consequences in many areas, including criminal investigations, court proceedings, and internal corporate security investigations. As these threats continue to grow, traditional forensic techniques to safeguard video footage will not be enough to protect against generative AI’s ability to covertly and overtly alter surveillance video. This growing need for new solutions highlights the importance for industry collaboration and a standardized way to preserve the integrity of video and institutional trust in the footage as an accurate view of a situation.

Media signing

As a global standards organisation, ONVIF is working on a method of video authentication called media signing that provides proof that the video has not been altered since it has left the specific camera sensor that captured the video. Securing the video at its earliest point, when the sensor in the camera captures the video, is key to ensuring the authenticity and trustworthiness of the video footage from camera to court.

Standardising video authentication using ONVIF enables a common way to verify the authenticity of the video it has received. By securing the video right from the specific camera that captured it, there’s no need to prove the chain of custody for the video. You can verify the video authenticity at every step — from the camera to a person viewing the exported recording. With authentication provided at the point of capture, the video can be traced back to the device that recorded it.

Standardising this process for the security industry and others that rely on camera footage for other uses will provide consistency and reliability in the authenticity of video. ONVIF believes that video authentication at the source (from the camera) through video signing will provide the assurances needed to preserve trust in surveillance video.

ONVIF chairman Leo Levit recently delivered a presentation on video integrity at ISC West 2025 in Las Vegas.