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jihadjihad 2 hours ago

There's not much you can do about it, as sibling comment mentions it's a known gap. There is some work [0] in this space on the investigative side to trace the leak's source, but again the only way it would work is if you can obtain a leaked copy post hoc (leaked to press, discovered through some other means, etc.).

0: https://www.echomark.com/post/goodbye-to-analog-how-to-use-a...

palmotea 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> There's not much you can do about it, as sibling comment mentions it's a known gap. There is some work [0] in this space on the investigative side to trace the leak's source, but again the only way it would work is if you can obtain a leaked copy post hoc (leaked to press, discovered through some other means, etc.).

Those kinds of watermarks seem like they'd fail to a sophisticated actor. For instance, if that echomark-type of watermark becomes widespread. I supposed groups like the New York Times would update their procedures to not publish leaked documents verbatim or develop technology to scramble the watermark (e.g. reposition things subtly (again) and fix kerning issues).

With generative AI, the value of a photograph or document as proof is probably going to go down, so it probably won't be that big of an issue.

gosub100 2 hours ago | parent [-]

You could do really sneaky things like alter the space between words or other formatting tricks.

ceejayoz an hour ago | parent [-]

Print it out, scan it back in, and OCR that.

Then have an AI or intern paraphrase it.

kube-system 12 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Then you fix that loophole by subtlety altering the phrasing or formatting that you send everyone

palmotea 26 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

I think that's exactly what will happen.

When a competent journalist gets a leaked document, they'll learn to only summarize it, but won't quote it verbatim or duplicate it. That'll circumvent and kind of passive leak-detection system that could reveal their source.

Then the only thing that would reveal the source is if the authority starts telling suspected leakers entirely different things, to see what gets out.

jihadjihad 9 minutes ago | parent [-]

> Then the only thing that would reveal the source is if the authority starts telling suspected leakers entirely different things, to see what gets out.

This is called a canary trap [0], a well-trodden technique in the real world and fiction alike.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_trap