Forensic Sciences


Revealing the Hidden: Deciphering the Secret Handwriting

Article Number: VRL723246 Volume 05 | Issue 01 | April - 2022 ISSN: 2581-4273
14th Dec, 2021
22nd Feb, 2022
22nd Mar, 2022
13th Apr, 2022

Authors

Vanshika Narang, Israa J. Hakeem, Dr. Ranjeet Kumar Singh

Abstract

Secret writings are invisible writings that can be only seen after using any development technique which helps in revealing those hidden messages. The invisible inks are used for writing the secret message. These invisible inks can be any kind of colourless fluid or liquid which evaporates slowly. Earlier secret writing was used by the government mainly but nowadays the criminals also use various kinds of invisible inks for fraud purposes. Thus, the cases of fraud by secret writing are increasing day by day; but with the advancement of technology, various detecting and deciphering methods have been developed for forensic purposes which help to identify the source of those particular ink which is being used along with revealing also. These universal and common techniques for decipherment of invisible inks are development by heat and development by Iodine fuming methods. The major purpose of this term paper is to give a collective information about some of those techniques and their methodology for decipherment. Keywords: Secret writing, Invisible inks, Decipherment, Hidden message, Handwriting

Introduction

Secret Writing is the means of written communication that is hidden and cannot be seen by naked eyes; thus, require few developing methods. The objective of secret writing is to render the written content unreadable to anyone who comes into contact with it. Secret writing is concealed by a spy whether it is encoded or enciphered or not. But sometimes Codes and Ciphers are mistakenly placed under the heading of Secret Writing whereas the secret writing only deals with messages or texts which are handwritten with any kind of Invisible inks.

Secret writing is being used since the middle of the Twentieth century for hiding messages. Secret writing was a source of communication for Prisoners. They used their Saliva or Sweat and sometimes Urine also as invisible ink to write the message. During times of war, the government also made use of these secret writings. In that era, Magnifying glass and direct light were used to detect the hidden message, but later on, many other developing methods were introduced including both physical and chemical methods. Secret Inks are needed for writing the secret message. These secret inks are also called as Invisible ink, Sympathetic inks, Disappearing inks and Security inks. In most cases, any colourless fluids which don’t evaporate immediately are used as secret inks. The writing instrument which is used for secret writing can be a paint-brush, pens with no ink, nibs, toothpicks or other any sharp-pointed object; sometimes fingers and cotton ear-bud too. Mainly plain white papers are used as a writing surface. The invisible inks dry up after a few hours when applied to papers; thus, the written content becomes invisible and cannot appear until any revealing process is used for decipherment. These inks could be used to forge documents such as agreements, cheques, property documents, and other important documents. These invisible inks are typically non-volatile.

Many destructive and non-destructive methods are available for the forensic decipherment of these secret writing (Hemantini and Khudbudin, 2018).

Few of the revealing methods for invisible inks are Physical Methods like development by Heat, visualisation under Ultra-Violet light, detection under ESDA (Electrostatic Detection Apparatus), visualisation under Infra-Red light and Oblique light and Chemical Methods like Iodine fuming, treatment with Silver Nitrate, pH indicator, Precipitation reaction and some other chemical treatments (Andharmule et al., 2013).

Some of the inks are also developed by dusting the written area with powders like Fluorescent Powder and Black Powder whereas some of the inks are developed by wetting the paper. All these developing techniques give different kinds of visualization and result with different kinds of inks due to the components present in invisible inks. These variations are also affected by the thinning of paper caused by the drying of these inks on the paper's surface when applied.

References

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Artin, Ben, and Patricia Brandl. “Invisible Inks With Household Ingredients: Mechanisms and Properties.” Northeastern University College of Professional Studies, 2011, pp. 1–11, iris.artins.org/misc/invisible-inks.pdf.

Chen, Fei‐Fei, et al. “Secret Paper with Vinegar as an Invisible Security Ink and Fire as a Decryption Key for Information Protection.” Chemistry – A European Journal, vol. 25, no. 46, 2019, pp. 10918–25. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201902093.

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