Patent ID: 7577854

Claim:
An information storage apparatus to which devices write and from which devices read, the information storage apparatus comprising: an information controller that, using a key held inside, encrypts and writes data in a memory area, and decodes and reads the encrypted data in said memory area, said memory area including a plurality of partitioned areas, wherein each of said partitioned areas is one of a non-authenticated area accessible without any authentication, an authenticated area accessible only to authenticated devices, and a secure area accessible only to said information controller; and a partition controller that controls reading from and writing to said partitioned areas in said memory area, said partition controller comprising: an area controller that controls addresses of said partitioned areas in said memory area; an area update condition controller that controls update conditions when updating the number and sizes of said partitioned areas; an area update decider that receives, from a user, a partition request that requests updating of the number and sizes of said partitioned areas and that decides whether said partition request satisfies said update conditions; and an area updater that updates, when said partition request satisfies said update conditions, the number and sizes of said partitioned areas in said memory area according to said partition request, wherein procedure conditions that specify necessity of authentication in association with a timing of updating said partitioned areas, and entity conditions that specify conditions including the number of times said memory area can be partitioned, a maximum number of partitioned areas, and a maximum size per partitioned area are specified as said update conditions, wherein said timing of updating said partitioned areas is one of before issuance of the information storage apparatus from a card issuer to the user and after issuance of the information storage apparatus from the card issuer to the user, and wherein said area update decider receives said partition request from the user after issuance of the information storage apparatus from the card issuer to the user.