ONVIF and the C2PA announce collaboration to strengthen trust in digital video

ONVIF, the leading global standardization initiative for IP-based physical security products, has announced that it has entered into a strategic collaboration with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) to preserve the integrity and authenticity of digital video in the evolving fight against content manipulation.

The two groups will work together to raise awareness and promote the adoption of open standards that help verify the authenticity of video content across digital video platforms. This initiative aligns the ONVIF video authentication specification with Content Credentials, the open standard published by the C2PA, which is comprised of Microsoft, Adobe, Google, Meta, BBC, and Truepic.  Content Credentials enhances transparency and establishes end-to-end confidence in the authenticity of digital assets.

This collaboration comes at a time when synthetic media, deepfakes and AI-generated content are becoming increasingly indistinguishable from authentic footage. The tools that create this fake content pose a significant risk to public trust in video used for law enforcement, corporate security and legal proceedings as well as in a wide range of digital media products.
 

Globalizing standards

“We are happy to welcome ONVIF as a liaison member to the C2PA,” said Andrew Jenks, Executive Chair of the C2PA. “As the global standard for provenance, Content Credentials plays a vital role in providing transparency in digital media. The collaboration with ONVIF and the C2PA brings Content Credentials to video security—an environment where footage must reflect reality without alteration. We’re excited about our work together and the impact of our global, open standards.”

The video authentication specification developed by ONVIF, known as media signing, ensures that video footage is cryptographically signed at the point of capture with a digital key specific to the individual surveillance camera. The signatures are embedded in the video, enabling an authentication tool to verify whether video frames—throughout the chain of custody—have been modified or manipulated since they left the camera.
 
This is critical for video used in court proceedings, law enforcement investigations, and corporate security incidents, where any doubts about the validity of video evidence can undermine outcomes and erode institutional trust.

The C2PA’s core specification, Content Credentials, is a technical standard that allows publishers, creators and consumers to trace the lifecycle of media, beginning from production (such as which camera captured an image, whether it was edited, and when) to consumption (displaying this information on the website or platform where the content appears).
 

Making footage tamper-proof

Content Credentials embed cryptographically signed, tamper-evident metadata directly into images, video, audio, and documents or stored in a manifest that travels with the content, making any alteration detectable. This metadata acts like a digital “nutrition label,” detailing the content’s origin, history, and any modifications made.

“Preserving the authenticity of video has never been more important as the threats from generative AI and other means of content manipulation continue to increase exponentially, regardless of industry and use case,” said Leo Levit, Chairman, Steering Committee, ONVIF. “The work of ONVIF to preserve video integrity and the recognition by the C2PA will help build user confidence that recorded video can be verified as genuine and untampered.”

ONVIF is a leading and well-recognized industry forum driving interoperability for IP-based physical security products, with a global member base of established camera, video management system and access control companies and nearly 34,000 profile conformant products. ONVIF offers Profile S for streaming video; Profile G for video recording and storage; Profile C for physical access control; Profile A for broader access control configuration; Profile T for advanced video streaming; Profile M for metadata and events for analytics applications and Profile D for access control peripherals.
 
ONVIF continues to work with its members to expand the number of IP interoperability solutions ONVIF conformant products can provide.