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Internatioal Forensic Image-hash Database, and their logos are trademarks of Surf Recon, Inc.

Frequently Asked Questions

TOP QUESTIONS

When SurfRecon scans my computer, what is it doing?

What is a hash?

Can two different images have the same hash?

Does your database (IFID) contain any images?

When SurfRecon scans my computer, what is it doing?

What is a hash?

Can two different images have the same hash?

Does your database (IFID) contain any images?

Can you reverse hash values to get an image?

What is the International Forensics Image Database(IFID)?

How many image hashes does the IFID contain?

How is SurfRecon helping me speed up my forensic examinations?

How do I submit images to the IFID?

How do I know an image has been submitted to the IFID?

I miss marked an image, how do I change it?

Why should I take the time to submit images to the IFID?

Who can submit to the IFID?

Is it true that SurfRecon also uses a WebCrawler to constantly scan the internet for “safe” and “sexual” images?

I have a local database of child pornography, how can I submit it to the IFID?

Can I receive credit for submitting images to the IFID?

What is the difference between SurfRecon and the IFID?

What does “Work Offline” mean?

Can I submit images while working offline?

Why can't I access reports in offline mode?

When SurfRecon scans my computer what is it doing?

When SurfRecon locates an image file on the hard drive it's scanning, it calculates the image's hashes and sends them to the International Forensics Image Database (IFID) to see if the corresponding image has already been categorized. In a fraction of a second, SurfRecon can find out if anyone, namely law enforcement, has tagged that image as “sexual,” “safe,” or “child pornography.” It also retrieves any additional information submitted regarding the image.

As this information is retrieved, SurfRecon presents the images to you in their corresponding categories. This enables you to examine computers in much less time than was previously possible.

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What is a hash?

A hash is an image’s fingerprint. It is a series of numbers and letters that are unique to that image. Every image can be reduced to a hash/fingerprint, and every time the hash value is taken, it will be exactly the same.

For example, the following picture’s hash looks like this:

Hash value = 93DN49DH5760YJ584NJR3N3

When SurfRecon scans a computer it finds each image’s hash/fingerprint and compares it with the International Forensics Image Database to see if those images have been tagged as “safe,” “sexual,” or “child pornography.” In this case, if SurfRecon found this image on your computer it would know it is safe because law enforcement in Utah County, Utah have reviewed the image and marked it accordingly.

For more information on hashes go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_function

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Can two different images have the same hash?

The odds of finding two images with the same hash are about 1 in 1 billion. In theory two totally different images could have the same hash/fingerprint. However, to keep this from happening, SurfRecon takes two different kinds of hashes for every image (MD5 and SHA-1). When scanning a computer it references both of these hash values. By using two hash values the odds of two different images both having the same hash values is astronomical.

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Does your database (IFID) contain any images?

No, the database doesn’t contain any images. The database is comprised of millions of hashes, which are merely fingerprints of images. There are several reasons why the database contains only hashes and no images.

Image files are large; it would be nearly impossible to create a database large enough to house the billions of images on the Internet. Hash values on the other hand are extremely small. It is much faster to compare hashes than it is entire image files. By only referencing the hash values, SurfRecon can quickly scan a computer and compare the images to the IFID.
Speed. By only referencing the hash value SurfRecon can quickly scan a computer and compare its images to the IFID.
Possession of child pornography is a federal crime.
We want to help people keep pornography off their computers, not become the single largest repository of pornography.

Can you reverse hash values to get an image?

No, you cannot take the hash/fingerprint of an image and determine what the picture is in the same way you can’t determine what someone looks like by merely looking at their fingerprints.

This means that the IFID is filled of millions of finger prints that mean nothing until positively matched with images on a computer you are scanning.

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What is the International Forensics Image Database (IFID)?

The International Forensics Image Database (IFID) is one of the world’s largest repositories of image hashes/fingerprints. Along with every image hash in the database is a record of who submitted it and what the image was submitted as: “safe,” “sexual,” or “child pornography.” Image’s hashes in the IFID contain additional information including what website the image came from, convictions that have come from possession of the image, notes about what the image contains, as well as detailed information about the images such as what type of camera the image was captured with and what programs were used to edit the image. All this information is viewable through SurfRecon.

The IFID does all of this by merely referencing the image hash value. The IFID contains no images.

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How many image hashes does the IFID contain?

As of January 2008 the International Forensics Image Database (IFID) contains over 5 million image hashes and is rapidly growing. While that number is still relatively small, the more law enforcement uses SurfRecon to scan computers and tag unknown images, the larger and more comprehensive the IFID will grow.

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How is SurfRecon helping me speed up my forensic examinations?

SurfRecon helps you speed up your forensic examinations in several ways.

SurfRecon quickly scans a computer for images and displays them in an easy to review thumbnail viewer. When SurfRecon scans a computer it references the International Forensics Image Database (IFID) to find out if the images it locates have been previously categorized. By referencing the work of officers throughout the world you can quickly find the illegal images on a computer.
SurfRecon also uses the IFID to find out which images are “safe.” This speeds up your searches by allowing you to focus on the images that are “child pornography” or “unknown.”
When you are reviewing a computer you may also submit images (hashes) to the database so that in subsequent computer searches you and your colleagues around the world won’t have to repeat work over and over again.

How do I submit images to the IFID?

Submitting images to the IFID is extremely easy. When viewing an image using SurfRecon you simply press the appropriate button (located above the image in the viewer) to dictate whether you think the image is “safe,” “sexual,” or “child pornography.”

Images can also be viewed as thumbnails in the thumbnail viewer. In the thumbnail viewer multiple images may be selected using “Control/Shift+click” and “Control-A”. Once selected (each thumbnail will be highlighted in green) thumbnails can be submitted using the following key strokes:

Z=safe
X=sexual
C=child pornography

How do I know an image has been submitted to the IFID?

You will know an image has been submitted to the IFID because once an image is marked it will immediately leave the “unknown” folder and will go to the folder you marked it for. You will notice that the number of images in the “unknown” folder will decrease by one and the appropriate folder will go up by one.

Also, if you review the “submissions” information for the image you submitted it will list you as the user that submitted it.

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I mismarked an image, how do I change it?

To change an image you submitted to the database, you can delete or simply re-categorize it. To delete the submission, find the image you submitted in the category listing you assigned it to. Once you have found it, open the “submissions” screen (it usually appears in the bottom left portion of the screen), highlight your submission's row, and press “delete”. The image will be put back in the “unknown” folder. To re-categorize it, find the image in the category listing you assigned it to and simply click the new category to which you wish to assign it. SurfRecon does the work of updating your submission.

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Why should I take the time to submit images to the IFID?

Every time you submit an image to the IFID it means neither you nor anyone else will ever have to look at that picture again. In the average forensic examination, 90% of the images have been examined by an officer sometime, somewhere. By simply categorizing images as “safe,” “sexual,” of “child pornography”, you save yourself and your colleagues the time and injury of having to review the same images over and over again. In nearly every police department in the world, officers are reviewing computers for illegal images. The images that are being reviewed likely have been reviewed before, and the work that officers are doing is repeated over and over again. By leveraging SurfRecon, you have the ability to collaborate with law enforcement agencies around the world, and limit the repeated contact with damaging pornographic images.

For example, suppose Officer James Edwards of the Miami, Florida Police Department convicts Joe Pedophile for possession of 45 child pornographic pictures. Using SurfRecon, he can then post the hashes of those images to the IFID where officers across the world can reference those hashes in their own investigations. They could also retrieve the notes from the IFID indicating who submitted the images, whether or not they have already been prosecuted in court, and any other case notes Officer Edwards submitted with the images.

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Who can submit to the IFID?

Currently only law enforcement and certified computer forensics companies directly tied to law enforcement can submit to the database. However, SurfRecon is currently working on a home edition that will grant general public users the ability to scan their computers for pornography and submit the images (hashes) they feel are “safe” and/or “sexual.” The general public will not be allowed to make “Child Pornography” submissions. The submissions by the general public will have a scoring and a verification process associated with them before they become certified as valid categorizations.

If you are not law enforcement but would like to become a certified submitter to the IFID contact support@surfrecon.com

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Is it true that SurfRecon also uses a WebCrawler to constantly scan the internet for “safe” and “sexual” images?

Yes, SurfRecon deploys a web crawler that runs around the clock. The crawler goes to known porn web sites and submits the images into the IFID as “sexual” and goes to the most popular safe sites (e.g. cnn.com, espn.com, msn.com, etc.) and marks the images as “safe.” This web crawler helps SurfRecon keep up with the constant addition of images to the internet.

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I have a local database of child pornography, how can I submit it to the IFID?

If you have a directory / folder containing the images themselves, you can simply scan the file with SurfRecon and then mark them accordingly. You can view them one by one using the buttons in the “viewer” to mark the images, or you can view the images in thumbnail mode where you can select multiple images using ctrl+A or ctrl/shift +click paradigms, submitting them using following key strokes:

z-safe
x-sexual
c-child porn

If you don’t have the images but you have both the MD5 and SHA-1 hash values that will work as well. In this case contact support@surfRecon for information on how to manually add the hashes to the database.

In either case, if you have access to a large amount of hashes, especially child pornography hashes, contact support@surfrecon.com for information about receiving credit for your contributions to the database.

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Can I receive credit for submitting images to the IFID?

Yes. The IFID becomes more valuable with every image submitted. To help promote the growth of the IFID we are willing to give credit, including discounted monthly access and discounted licenses to officers who submit images that are “Sexual” and/or “Child Pornography” to the database.

For information about receiving credit for your submissions to the database, contact support@surfrecon.com.

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What is the difference between SurfRecon and the IFID?

The IFID is an international database of image hashes. The IFID is supported and maintained by SurfRecon, Inc. SurfRecon, LE is the software program used to query the IFID and make submissions.

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What does “Work Offline” mean?

When an Internet connection is unavailable or not desired (because you are on site at a suspect's residence), you can work offline. SurfRecon maintains a local database of hashes in addition to the central IFID which it will reference before the IFID or if you are working offline; therefore, many images will still be able to be automatically categorized. Currently only “safe” hashes are located in the local cache; however, different types of images may be added in the future, depending on feedback from law enforcement.

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Can I submit images while working offline?

The current Beta version of SurfRecon does not permit the submission of hashes while running in offline mode. A near future release will allow this to happen. Once the officer logs in again in online mode, the submissions will then be communicated to the IFID.

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Why can't I access reports in offline mode?

The generation of reports requires information about the officer or citizen performing the scan. This information is only available when the user is logged in.

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