Digital signatures

The organization that shares video with you can assist you with digital signatures to verify the authenticity of the recorded video and prove that the video has not been modified after it was recorded or exported.

You can use digital signatures to verify the authenticity of your recorded video. This is useful, for example if you want to demonstrate that the video has not been tampered with.

There are two stages of verification. You can verify:

• whether the video has been modified after it was recorded. The recording server creates a digital signature for the recording. Later when you view exported video in XProtect Smart Client – Player, you can compare the recording signature with the one that was originally created by the recording server.

• whether video that you export in XProtect Smart Client has been modified after it was exported. During the export process, XProtect Smart Client creates a signature for the export file. Later, when you review the exported evidence in XProtect Smart Client – Player, you can compare the export signature with the one that was created during the export.

If you find that there is a discrepancy, there is reason to question the reliability of the video evidence.

The original digital signatures are contained in the PublicKey.xml and Public Key Certificate.xml files in these locations:

• XProtect Smart Client - [export destination folder]\[export name]\Client Files\Data\Mediadata\[camera name]\[camera name]\Export signatures

• XProtect Management Client - C:\Program Files\Milestone\Management Server\Tools\CertificateIssuer

There are two scenarios where digital signatures are excluded during the export process:

• If there are areas with privacy masksA blurred or solid color that covers an area of the video in the camera view. The defined areas are blurred or covered in live, playback, hotspot, carousel, smart map, smart search, and export modes in the clients., digital signatures for the recording server will be removed in the export.

• If the data you are exporting is very close to the current date and time, the digital signature for the recording server might not be included for the whole sequence. In this case, only part of the export will have digital signatures added.

The export process will complete, but when you verify the signatures, you will see that the digital signatures for the recording server have been removed or are only partially OK.