Anonymous Claims New PSN Hack, Sony Says It Didn't Happen

Here's something that's rather interesting: Anonymous is claiming that it has hacked the PlayStation Network, making off with information on 10 million accounts. Anonymous announced the hack on its Twitter account just over an hour ago (though that tweet has since been removed), and someone claiming to be "the man behind Anonymous" posted this list of emails and encrypted passwords reportedly stolen from PSN as proof of the attack.

Reports of a new PSN security breach make us immediately recall the bad memories from spring 2011, but there may not be reason to worry just yet. The list which was posted to Pastebin is apparently just a duplicate of a list posted back in March. Kotaku says that SCEA's Shane Bettenhausen has stated on Twitter that claims of the hack are "totally fake," but that tweet appears to have been taken down too.

It's all very confusing, but at the moment, it seems that the PlayStation Network is safe. It's a good thing too, because PS3 owners definitely still remember last year's attack all too well. The attack was severe enough that Sony had to take PSN down for a month as it worked on boosting security and investigated what all was stolen. When Sony reported that credit card details may have been stolen in the attack, that made things go from bad to worse, and Sony had to do a lot to restore faith in the company.

Luckily, it seems that history won't be repeating itself quite yet, but with Sony claiming that it greatly improved security after the first attack, you know that there are plenty of hackers trying to bring PSN down for a second time. With that in mind, it seems that it's only a matter of time before someone gets in, but who knows? It could be that Sony's defenses are as strong as the company says. In any case, we'll be bringing you more information as this rather strange story develops, so keep it tuned here to SlashGear!