How to Verify the Videos Snapshots Authentication Recorded on Synology NAS
Overview
Surveillance Station is a professional Video Management Software (VMS) add-on for DiskStation Manager (DSM), allowing you to remotely record and monitor video footage from IP cameras which are paired with your DiskStation. Synology's implementation of digital signatures helps verify the exact time at which recordings were made, ensuring recorded evidence is admissible in a court of law.
For any recorded video and live view still images, MD5 video watermark authentication is deployed to help ensure data integrity. The entire export is authenticated with NIST-approved Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC), and RSA encryption technology applies digital signatures. This is a highly secure, accurate and defendable means of verifying the authenticity of video recordings, as the authentication would not succeed if any recordings had been modified, recording equipment changed, or system time altered.
This article explains how to export a snapshot image or recording from Surveillance Station and validate it using the "Evidence Integrity Authentication" desktop utility.
- MD5: Cryptographic hash function that produces a 128-bit (16-byte) hash value. MD5 is deployed in a wide variety of security applications to check data integrity.
- Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC): Used for simultaneously verify both the data integrity and the authenticity of a message. HMAC is a construction used for calculating a message authentication code (MAC) involving a cryptographic hash function (such as MD5) in combination with a secret key.
- RSA: Algorithm for public-key cryptography with 2048 bits (617 decimal digits).
Contents
- Before you start
- Capture video and snapshot Images
- Check authentication of video and snapshot Images
1. Before you start
This article assumes that you have done the following tasks:
- Installed DSM 4.0 or later on the DiskStation.
- Installed and set up the Surveillance Station on the DiskStation. For detailed instructions to install packages, please see this tutorial.
- Paired at least one camera with Surveillance Station, and captured at least one recording.
2. Capture video and snapshot images
All images and videos from Surveillance Station are already embedded with digital watermarks. In order to verify the validity of the video/snapshot evidence, it must be exported onto a local PC/Mac/Linux workstation.
- Log into Surveillance Station with the Surveillance Station Manager account or one belonging to the administrators group.
- Do either of the following to download the desired video/snapshot:
- Go to Live View, and download snapshots onto your computer by clicking on the Snapshot button.
- Go to Timeline, and download snapshots and/or Surveillance Station videos onto your computer by clicking on the Snapshot or Download button respectively.
- Go to Recording, select a recording in the List tab, and download the Surveillance Station video onto your computer by clicking on the Download button.
3. Check Authentication of Video and Snapshot Images
To verify videos/snapshots recorded on the DiskStation, users can select the video/snapshot evidence and run the Evidence Integrity Authenticator desktop utility to see the detail of the evidence file. If the file has been tempered with, results will be shown accordingly.
- Download the Synology Evidence Integrity Authenticator from the Download Center for PC/Mac/Linux.
- Click on Open File(s) or Open Folder button within Evidence Integrity Authenticator program.
- Select snapshot and/or video files that you have just downloaded from Surveillance Station.
- The Authentication Result column will show the results within the Synology Evidence Integrity Authenticator program.
