e-Fraud Prevention Based on the Self-Authentication of e-Documents

We consider a method for preventing e-Fraud in which a binary image is encrypted with a floating point cipher using a convolution operation and the output quantized into a 1-bit array generating a binary image ciphertext. The output is then `embedded' in a host image to hide the encrypted information. Embedding is undertaken either in the lowest 1-bit layer or multiple 1-bit layers. Decryption is accomplished by: (i) extracting the binary image from the host image; (ii) correlating the result with the original cipher. In principle, any cipher generator can be used for this purpose and the method has been designed to operate with 24-bit colour images. The approach has a variety of applications and in this paper, we focus on the authentication and self-authentication of edocuments (letters and certificates, for example) that are communicated over the Internet and are thereby vulnerable to e-Fraud (e.g. modification, editing, counterfeiting etc.).