50 phones, 12 laptops & a deleted email - How cops tracked down man behind Rashmika deepfake
The delhi police investigated 50 phones, 12 laptops, various deleted accounts, call records, a deleted email address, and numerous other leads before cracking the deepfake video of popular actor rashmika Mandanna. Soon after the actor's deepfake video went viral in November, instagram took action and erased some of the uploads and shares. This posed a significant challenge for the delhi Police's Intelligence Fusion Strategic Operations (IFSO) section, since data for these accounts became increasingly difficult to access.
It took the police almost two months to apprehend the offender, Andhra Pradesh-based engineer Eemani Naveen, who reportedly manufactured the video to raise the number of followers on a fanpage he created for Mandanna on Instagram. According to investigators, the fan page's followers climbed from 90,000 to 1,08,000 within two weeks following the initial upload.
A team led by Assistant Commissioner of police (ACP) Manoj Kumar, which included inspector Hansraj Swami and sub inspector Kapil Yaduvanshi, worked on this high-profile case to bring the country's attention to the threats posed by the new age platform that seamlessly edits and manipulates films.
In the following two months, the National Cyber Forensics Lab in delhi and IFSO launched an investigation by reverse analysing the video sharers. The inquiry relied largely on wallet PLATFORM' target='_blank' title='digital-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW">digital forensics, with films and phones studied under the supervision of ACP Vijay Gehlawat, who collaborated closely with Meta. Soon after the crime was solved, the actor praised DCP, IFSO, and hemant Tiwari for the arrest.
The investigative team reviewed over 500 social media handles before questioning approximately 20 persons. Meta, which owns and manages instagram, provided the police with the profile information of the persons who submitted and spread the video.
However, according to sources, throughout the inquiry, the majority of them were unable to recall where they first viewed the movie and downloaded it. That was when wallet PLATFORM' target='_blank' title='digital-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW">digital forensics specialists stepped in.
"Forensic analysis was performed on 40-50 phones and 10-12 laptops." However, tracing deleted records is extremely tough. We contacted Meta for profile information such as handle names and subsequently tracked the IP addresses," another insider added.
Until two days before the arrest, the investigative team was unsure whether naveen was the video's original producer.
"He deleted the fan page, the video, and the email address used to create the deepfake video." "It was created using an open source application," the second source stated. "In certain circumstances, a separate (mobile) number is provided to create an email account, thus we needed to be extra certain. The reverse tracing through forensic examination of the phone and laptop information lead to the accused."
After the police confirmed Naveen's deleted email address, a team flew to andhra pradesh to interview the B.Tech graduate, who was detained on Saturday.
It took the police almost two months to apprehend the offender, Andhra Pradesh-based engineer Eemani Naveen, who reportedly manufactured the video to raise the number of followers on a fanpage he created for Mandanna on Instagram. According to investigators, the fan page's followers climbed from 90,000 to 1,08,000 within two weeks following the initial upload.
A team led by Assistant Commissioner of police (ACP) Manoj Kumar, which included inspector Hansraj Swami and sub inspector Kapil Yaduvanshi, worked on this high-profile case to bring the country's attention to the threats posed by the new age platform that seamlessly edits and manipulates films.
In the following two months, the National Cyber Forensics Lab in delhi and IFSO launched an investigation by reverse analysing the video sharers. The inquiry relied largely on wallet PLATFORM' target='_blank' title='digital-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW">digital forensics, with films and phones studied under the supervision of ACP Vijay Gehlawat, who collaborated closely with Meta. Soon after the crime was solved, the actor praised DCP, IFSO, and hemant Tiwari for the arrest.
The investigative team reviewed over 500 social media handles before questioning approximately 20 persons. Meta, which owns and manages instagram, provided the police with the profile information of the persons who submitted and spread the video.
However, according to sources, throughout the inquiry, the majority of them were unable to recall where they first viewed the movie and downloaded it. That was when wallet PLATFORM' target='_blank' title='digital-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW">digital forensics specialists stepped in.
"Forensic analysis was performed on 40-50 phones and 10-12 laptops." However, tracing deleted records is extremely tough. We contacted Meta for profile information such as handle names and subsequently tracked the IP addresses," another insider added.
Until two days before the arrest, the investigative team was unsure whether naveen was the video's original producer.
"He deleted the fan page, the video, and the email address used to create the deepfake video." "It was created using an open source application," the second source stated. "In certain circumstances, a separate (mobile) number is provided to create an email account, thus we needed to be extra certain. The reverse tracing through forensic examination of the phone and laptop information lead to the accused."
After the police confirmed Naveen's deleted email address, a team flew to andhra pradesh to interview the B.Tech graduate, who was detained on Saturday.