Verify Chain of Custody

Topics included in this article:

• Overview
• Steps to Verify Chain of Custody
• Helpful Links
• Contact Support or Sales

Overview

Every video clip saved from the Rhombus Console includes cryptographic validation data that can be used to verify its authenticity and confirm it has not been modified after export. This chain of custody process compares the downloaded file's checksum against the checksum recorded by the Rhombus Console, providing a reliable method for validating the integrity of evidence. This article explains how to generate a checksum on macOS or Windows and verify that a saved video is an authentic, unaltered Rhombus clip.

Steps to Verify Chain of Custody

1. Log in to the Rhombus Console and navigate to the "Saved Video" tab.

2. Select a clip from the list of saved videos.

3. Click "Clip integrity details" in the saved clip preview.

4. Open Terminal on your computer (or PowerShell if you are using Windows), then navigate to your Downloads folder or the folder where you saved the downloaded clip.

% cd ./path/to/file

5. Run the validation command collected in Step 3, appending the downloaded clip's file name to generate its checksum. (On Windows, the checksum is referred to as a hash.)

Note: When entering the commands below, replace the example clip name ("Eric Test") with the name of your downloaded clip.

Command

% shasum -a 256 Eric\ Test.mp4 (Mac)

> Get-FileHash './Eric Test.mp4' (PC)

Output

Mac
% 844a68d28664b77ddbda092d03d0949f5d6273c29cb2cbf98921f748c4fee712  Eric Test.mp4

PC
> Algorithm       Hash                                                                   Path
  ---------       ----                                                                   ----
  SHA256          844A68D28664B77DDBDA092D03D0949F5D6273C29CB2CBF98921F748C4FEE712       /Users/Downloads/Eric Test.mp4

6. Copy the checksum from the command output and replace "String1" in the command below with it. Then, in the clip information pane, copy the value displayed next to "Checksum" and replace "String2" with that value.

Mac Command

% [[ "string1" == "string2" ]] && echo "True" || echo "False"

Windows Command

% "String1" -eq "String2"

7. Verify the output from Step 6. If the output is "True," the checksums match and the clip has been validated. If the output is "False," the checksums do not match.

Validate command:

% shasum -a 256 ./path/to/file (Mac)

> Get-FileHash ./path/to/file (PC)

Helpful Links

• Save, Share, and Delete Video Clips
• Data and Clip Storage Retention

Contact Support or Sales

Have more questions? Contact Rhombus Support at +1 (877) 746-6797 option 2 or support@rhombus.com.

Interested in learning more? Contact Rhombus Sales at +1 (877) 746-6797 option 1 or sales@rhombus.com.