Cyber

Cryptographic provenance

A signature attached to a content attesting to its origin and integrity, to authenticate the true rather than detect the fake.

Definition

Cryptographic provenance designates the technologies that attach to an image, a video or a document a signature certifying its origin and integrity, and allowing the content to be traced back to its source. Faced with AI-augmented fraud, it embodies a change of paradigm, reversing the burden of proof by requiring a content to be natively authenticated rather than exhausting oneself proving it false. This approach recognises that detecting the fake is a race lost in advance, the generator always having a head start over the detector. It nonetheless supposes shared standards and an ecosystem of trust that no insurer can build alone, as well as a transformation of practices, the policyholder having to capture their evidence through certified applications.

Example

A certified application signs the photograph of a damage at the moment of its capture, cryptographically attesting to its authenticity, which spares the insurer from having to prove it was not fabricated.

Related terms
Also known as

provenance des contenus, authentification à la source, content provenance