Interesting bit of a quote

[David Mercer]

On 7/13/06, leichter_jerrold at emc.com <leichter_jerrold at emc.com> wrote:
> Phenomenon 1:
>         Computerized records are malleable, and it's in general impossible
> to
>         determine if someone has changed them, when they changed them, what
>         the previous value was, and so on.  Further, changing computer
> records
>         scales easily - it costs about as much to change a million records
> as
>         it does to change one record.

Well yes, and no.  Relational database systems preform replication by
copying and loading trasaction logs, and WORM drives (and WORM tapes)
are used by organizations that need to prove that things weren't
altered (or to be able to audit when they are).  It is of course quite
a lot more expensive to do things that way compared to how the typical
IT shop does things.

-David Mercer

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