Abstract

There are 331 million smartphone users in the United States alone (Bazen, 2026). Most smartphones have video recording capabilities, which leads to a large volume of video production every day. Surveillance cameras, body cameras, and dashcam footage are among the many other devices that record and store video. With so many instances of video footage comes a high potential for videos to be used as evidence in criminal cases. Since video evidence is so prevalent in today’s trials, it is essential for digital forensics students to have access to quality video forensics resources. A quality education supports quality analysis. Every great digital forensic analyst begins with countless hours and dedication towards learning the ins and outs of digital evidence. The Internet is a great resource for digital forensics educational material, whether that be through videos, articles, books, or courses. Although there is a lot of material already published, some areas lack accessible and free resources, with one of which being video forensics, particularly regarding hands-on courses. 

The purpose of this project is to provide the first free and open-source course on video forensics with a focus on MP4 files. MP4 files are the primary file type taught in this course because they are the most commonly used video file type in today’s world. This course has five modules: Introduction, Metadata Analysis, Legal Aspects, Tampering, and Steganography. It contains labs that use open-source software so students can get hands-on experience at no cost. The goal of this course is for students to have access to video forensics materials that are not behind a paywall, consequentially improving the digital forensics workforce and criminal justice system in the future.

This course was created as a senior Capstone project for the Information Technology & Sciences division at Champlain College.