AES E-Library

Forensic Authenticity Analyses of the Header Data in Re-Encoded WMA Files from Small Olympus Audio Recorders

When questioned as forensic evidence, audio recordings are frequently examined scientifically to insure that they have not been modified by being exported, edited, and then imported back to a recorder. For those recorders that use the Windows Media Audio (WMA) format, their authenticity can be determined, in part, by examination of the header data. Eleven audio recordings from three Olympus recorders were examined for changes in the digital header data, after being externally re-encoded by four common audio editing programs. All of the files were found to have undergone significant changes to the WMA header information by the re-encoding processes. Therefore, when conducting forensic authenticity analyses of WMA files, a detailed understanding of the header is required.

Authors: Koenig, Bruce E.; Lacey, Douglas S.
Affiliation: BEK TEK LLC, Clifton, VA, USA
JAES Volume 60 Issue 4 pp. 255-265; April 2012 Import into BibTeX

Click to purchase paper or login as an AES member. If your company or school subscribes to the AES Journal then you can look for this paper in the institutional version of the Online Journal. If you are not an AES member and would like to subscribe to the E-Library then Join the AES!

This paper costs $20 for non-members, $5 for AES members and is free for E-Library subscribers.

Learn more about the AES E-Library

E-Library Location: (CD JAES60)   /jaes60/4/pg255.pdf

Start a discussion about this report!