PlayStation Network: Where Bullshit Is Reported As Fact.

That rumour was, of course, debunked publicly by Sony, when the platform holder was forced to come out and clarify that it in fact hashed its passwords — as is a common practice across many web environments.

Prior to that, it was rumoured that Sony did not encrypt credit card information. False again. Despite the number of mainstream media outlets reporting the opposite, Sony confirmed that it encrypted all credit card information stored on its servers.

But with each debunked rumour comes another one, the latest suggesting that Sony was running the PSN on an out-of-date version of Apache server without firewalls. Guess what? Not true again.

"The previous network for Sony Network Entertainment International and Sony Online Entertainment used servers that were patched and updated recently, and had multiple security measures in place, including firewalls," said belaboured Sony communications gaffer, Patrick Seybold.

Additional evidence dug up by users of the Beyond3D web forum suggested that Sony was in fact using Apache version 2.2.17, the latest version of the software available.

The source of the rumour stemmed from comments made by Dr. Gene Spafford, in which he reportedly claimed to Congress that Sony's network was "out of date and they knew about it". The "security expert" later noted on his Twitter page that he had been misquoted. Indeed, in Spafford's written letter to Congress he stated the following:

"I have no information about what protections they had in place, although some news reports indicate that Sony was running software that was badly out of date, and had been warned about that risk."

In truth, Spafford was just reciting information he'd read off the Internet. Another great source for a story that's damaged consumer confidence in Sony just that little bit more.

We're in a trying landscape when the chat logs of various hacker groups are reported on as fact.