tampered

Tampered is the past participle and adjective of the verb tamper, meaning that something has been touched, altered, or interfered with without authorization or legitimate purpose. In everyday usage, items or data described as tampered have been modified in a way that can affect accuracy, integrity, or safety, and the term often carries a negative or criminal connotation.

In data and information systems, tampered data refers to unauthorized modification that can misrepresent outcomes, breach trust, or defeat controls. In product safety and consumer protection, tampering denotes deliberate interference with a product or its packaging, such as contaminating food or altering labeling. In law and forensics, tampering with evidence or records denotes illegal actions intended to influence the outcome of investigations or proceedings. In politics and governance, vote tampering and ballot tampering describe attempts to alter results.

Detecting tampering relies on controls that create unambiguous records of a document or transaction's origin and history. Indicators include mismatched timestamps, altered hashes, broken seals, or inconsistent audit trails. When tampering is proven or suspected, consequences can include legal penalties, loss of credibility, and remedial security measures.

Preventive measures include tamper-evident packaging and seals, cryptographic techniques such as checksums and digital signatures, secure access control, activity logging, and chain-of-custody procedures for evidence. Organizations commonly implement redundancy, monitoring, and incident response plans to minimize the impact of tampering.