What is Digital Forgery ?
Creating a fake copy or imitation of a document or an object with the intention to deceive is called forgery.
It can involve everything from forging a signature, faking a masterpiece, creating a cheap replica of an expensive original device to faking government documents like a licence, birth certificate etc. Market places are full of convincing fakes of expensive originals items like designers shoes, clothes etc. All of these fakes can be called as forgeries.
Digital forgery involves creating the same fakes in electronic form.
What are the threats ?
With the use of advanced computing technologies, it is easy to forge a document. People who forge documents are very skilled, and growing technology has only made their job easier. Ordinary people do not know all the identifiers and special markers that differentiate a fake from an original.
Unless one is trained to identify, it is very difficult to differentiate between original and forged documents.
What are the risks ?
Forgeries are dangerous because often it very difficult to recognise them as fakes. In such a case, the victims of these acts may suffer from financial loss and loss of reputation as a consequence of digital forgery.
