Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2025. Read them in this 17th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Jason
Crawforth, Founder & CEO, SWEAR
As artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly
integrated into our daily lives, who stops to wonder what threats it imposes on
security? The rise of deepfakes and AI-generated content poses an unprecedented
challenge to the physical security industry as we know it. If the content
collected by our technology investments can’t be trusted, that leaves us
questioning everything we know about our current frameworks. That’s why I
expect the ability to protect digital content, including video surveillance, will
be a considerable point of interest in 2025.
While it seems just about every tech organization
has spent the last few years finding new ways to implement AI into their
products, few (if any) are developing ways to protect themselves from AI-based
threats. Protecting the origin of digital media is crucial in today’s
environment, especially considering the ever-growing importance of video
surveillance data.
Video data serves as the backbone for informed
decision-making, risk assessment, and mitigation strategies. However, it faces
unique vulnerabilities. Emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing
pose significant challenges to the industry’s ability to safeguard this data.
Current measures, such as encryption and watermarking, are increasingly being
undermined. That means the need for authenticated content grows as security,
IoT, and video systems become increasingly integrated.
To begin addressing this challenge, the security
industry must shift its mindset from reactive to proactive. One way to do this
is to start thinking about integrating measures directly into video
surveillance and monitoring solutions to protect the origin of the data. That
might sound like an oxymoron – security for security – but it’s exactly what we
need to protect our data in this era of artificial intelligence.
To reduce the risk of manipulated content, the
security industry must implement technologies that make it challenging for bad
actors to create forgeries of security footage. This is essential in
maintaining the integrity and credibility of security systems and the evidence
they produce. Storing proof of the original content’s digital DNA in blockchain
is one solution that fits the bill.
Blockchain offers a transparent and immutable
record of authenticity for digital media, enabling the secure storage of an
organization’s security footage. Cryptographic fingerprinting – that’s the
digital DNA – can verify the integrity of the original content, creating a
comprehensive defense against AI manipulation of security recordings.
The security industry reduces its risk of
manipulated content by implementing proactive measures rather than relying on
post-event identification or analysis. The content collected by surveillance
cameras is used to defend innocent parties, punish perpetrators, and prevent
future incidents. Manipulated footage can have serious consequences, from
impacting public trust to affecting legal cases. And there’s no way to
confidently take action without the raw, unaltered data.
Another threat we face is the negative impact on reputation. In an age where
misinformation blurs the lines between real and fake, the need to protect
digital content has never been more critical. Over the last year, we have seen
more scenarios of AI-developed content being spread and marketed as news when,
in reality, it is just more manipulated information. That’s why the drive to
protect the truth is crucial – content authentication can ensure businesses are
immune from the spread of misinformation. It comes down to setting the record
straight about what is real and what is fake.
In 2025, I expect blockchain-based digital media
authentication to take the main stage and become the industry standard for
ensuring the authenticity of video surveillance footage and other
security-related digital content. Technological advancements, industry-wide
adoption, and regulatory requirements will drive this necessary evolution.
Other emerging tools, such as AI-assisted real-time verification systems and
quantum-resistant cryptography, can also improve the industry’s ability to
secure digital content, creating an ecosystem where the authenticity of digital
media is ensured, not just assumed.
##
