Metadata Analysis of Web Images for Source Authentication in Online Social Media

Abstract

Camera mobility-based embedded devices now facilitate easy creation, manipulation, and sharing of digital content on social media. While doing so, the shareable misinformation or disinformation content may harm society. Such contents may be variously forwarded without verified integrity and authenticity of the source on Online Social Networks (OSN). Thus, it is inevitable to trace the epicenter and the kind of information being spread on social networks. In this paper, we have investigated the types of metadata linked with digital images and analyzed the different attributes that are susceptible to squandering the integrity of source authentication with the easy availability of online tools and mobile-based apps. Finally, we accentuate protecting the metadata through the watermarking technique to reveal a piece of important information in the digital forensic investigation.