Systems and methods for media authentication

A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions that when executed by a processor authenticate a digital medium comprising:

• monitoring a transfer rate of data read from a media reading device that results from reading data symbols stored on a physical location of the digital medium, said transfer rate being a rate in data elements per unit time at which data elements are returned from the media reading device in response to the read operation;
• determining from the transfer rate, a presence of an anomaly region on the digital medium corresponding to the physical location of the data symbols on the digital medium by identifying a modification in transfer rate;
• and
• authenticating the digital medium based on a characteristic of the anomaly region.

A method of authenticating a digital medium comprising:

• monitoring a transfer rate of data read from a media reading device that results from reading data symbols stored on a physical location of the digital medium, said transfer rate being a rate in data elements per unit time at which data elements are returned from the media reading device in response to the read operation;
• determining with a processor from the transfer rate, a presence of an anomaly region on the digital medium corresponding to the physical location of the data symbols on the digital medium by identifying a modification in transfer rate;
• and
• authenticating the digital medium based on a characteristic of the anomaly region.

A system for authenticating a digital medium by determining a presence of an anomaly region corresponding to a data segment of the digital medium comprising:

• a read unit that performs multiple read operations on a data segment of the digital medium to generate multiple corresponding read data results;
• a calculating unit configured to calculate corresponding digital signatures using actual data values of underlying data of the read data segment for each of the multiple read data results;
• and
• a determining unit configured to determine whether an anomaly region is present in the data segment based on a comparison of the digital signatures by determining whether any of the digital signatures are equal in value, and if a predetermined number of the digital signals are not equal in value, determining the anomaly region to be present;
• and
• an authentication mechanism configured to authenticate the digital medium in response to a determination of a presence of the anomaly region.