Anonymous Sony hack claims are "totally fake"

For a few brief hours it looked like it might be PSNgate all over again. But it’s not the case.

A Twitter user claiming to be a member of Anonymous last night claimed to have once again breached the security safeguards of the PlayStation Network. The individual claimed to have accessed 50GB worth of data including the account details of some ten million users.

The person even published the information online.

However, upon closer inspection it transpired that the list was the same as that released back in 2011 following the genuine hack of PlayStation Network.

A Sony spokesperson stated: "We’ve confirmed that the recent claim that PlayStation Network was illegally hacked and that customer passwords and email addresses were accessed is completely false."

Nonetheless, the sensitivity of the issue demonstrates that digital security remains one of the games industry’s hottest issues. Indeed, just last week Blizzard was forced to admit that one of the biggest gaming networks in the world, Battle.net, had been breached and sensitive data obtained.

However, the world of today is a different one to that of early 2011. Following the PSN breach (and a host of others) and some very public infighting from within hacker communities themselves, several members of Anonymous were arrested, bringing the core of the hacking community to its knees.

And this incident is but the latest in a long line of empty threats, suggesting that the Anonymous collective is not quite as cocky – or indeed able – as it once was.