Mexican Researchers Develop Software Against Hacking

Mexican researchers are trying to develop a computer program to help combat digital piracy, according to the Center for Research and Advanced Technology of Mexico (CINVESTAV), and the scientific center of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), the second most important public institution of higher education in the country after UNAM.

The investigator of the Tamaulipas Unit of CINVESTAV, Jose Juan Garcia Hernandez, said that just as each person has a unique DNA that stores genetic information, so do digital products (image, audio, video or text). This would allow investigators to track down people responsible for the illegal use or distribution of the product, and at the same time it would be useful to save and send confidential information.

The announcement was released as part of the World Anti-Counterfeiting Day on June 8. Garcia Hernandez said that the goal is to create software and hardware that is commercially attractive and could accelerate the process of detecting digital watermarks, according to information released by Mexican newspaper La Vanguardia. 

This development will be very useful for the music industry, as it will allow businesses to trace each song downloaded from the Internet and access the user's name, to check if the content is being used illegally.

In addition, the researcher added that the system would be very useful for the protection of sensitive information in medical records, where data regarding the doctor's opinion on a patient could be manipulated without the risk of being seen by unwanted people.

Although there are several similar software options, Garcia Hernandez and his team are working to develop a faster system with the capacity to receive twice the currently accepted data. As for the speed, it's expected that, in case of an audio signal, the system could increase about 10 times the processing speed to mark a music file.

The academic stressed this is a research field that is just developing in Mexico and Latin America, so there's still some disbelief at the power of the technique. This is one of the problems that has prevented most governments from creating laws on the use of these kinds of technologies.