SanDisk this week announced a new Secure Digital Card that the company says can store data for 100 years. The caveat? It can only be written on once. The SanDisk SD WORM (write once read many) card is now shipping in volume to the Japan police force, where it will be implemented as an alternative to film for the purpose of tamper-proof archiving.

According to the press release, any SD-compatible device can read SD WORM cards, though only devices that have SD WORM-compatible interfaces can write to the card. Once written, SanDisk's proprietary SD WORM controller protects the file, preventing any alteration or deletion of the files. SanDisk is looking at its technology to be adopted in applications related to long-term retention of legal documents and medical files, for example.

I have no doubt that the envisioned use of this technology is relevant and desirable. Based on the available information though, everything seems to hinge on SanDisk's proprietary SD WORM controller not being replicable. If a third-party controller could somehow be modified to write to a WORM, then the entire technology protection would simply fall apart. Now, I'm not saying that will happen, but that I'll want to find out more about the sophistication of the technology used by the controller first.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at InternetNews.com
- check out this article at NetworkWorld 

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