Since then, the members of LulzSec have been rounded up and taken to trial. The latest trial saw Cody Kretsinger, known as “Recursion” in online circles, sentenced to a year in prison. He was convicted on one count of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. After his year in prison, he will remain under home detention.

You may be thinking that Kretsinger’s sentence is a little light. He was able to get his sentence down to a year thanks to a plea bargain he made last year with federal prosecutors. As part of that plea bargain, he admitted to hacking into a Sony Pictures’ database and sharing the information with other members of LulzSec.

Home detention won’t be the only thing that Kretsigner has to look forward to after his stint in prison either. The U.S. district judge ordered him to complete 1,000 hours of community service. Maybe he can help clean up Sony Pictures’ studios in Los Angeles to help make up the $600,000 in damages that federal prosecutors say he caused the studio.

Kretsinger is one of the last original LulzSec members to be sentenced for their hacking spree in 2011. The hacker collective fell apart last year when its leader, known as Sabu, went rogue and started working with the FBI as an informant. There have been attempts to resurrect the group since then, but nothing has come of it.

[h/t: Reuters]

The UK’s Information Commissioner Office has hit Sony with a $395,000 fine for being in violation of the Data Protection Act. The Office says that the hack, and the resulting fine, could have been avoided if Sony’s server software “had been up-to-date.”

Here’s the full statement from David Smith, Deputy Commissioner and Director of Data Protection:

“If you are responsible for so many payment card details and log-in details then keeping that personal data secure has to be your priority. In this case that just didn’t happen, and when the database was targeted – albeit in a determined criminal attack – the security measures in place were simply not good enough.

There’s no disguising that this is a business that should have known better. It is a company that trades on its technical expertise, and there’s no doubt in my mind that they had access to both the technical knowledge and the resources to keep this information safe.

The penalty we’ve issued today is clearly substantial, but we make no apologies for that. The case is one of the most serious ever reported to us. It directly affected a huge number of consumers, and at the very least put them at risk of identity theft.

If there’s any bright side to this it’s that a PR Week poll shortly after the breach found the case had left 77 per cent of consumers more cautious about giving their personal details to other websites. Companies certainly need to get their act together but we all need to be careful about who we disclose our personal information to.”

So what will Sony do? A spokesperson told IT World that it plans to appeal the fine. If the appeal falls through, Sony can have the fine reduced to $316,000 if it pays by February 13. I’m sure the payment will come with a box of these.

Most of the core Final Fantasy titles are included in the sale. Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, and Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions for PSP and the PS Vita will cost €4.99/£3.99/AU$7.35. Strangely, Final Fantasy VI will cost the same €4.99/£3.99 as these other titles, but Australians will have to pay more at AU$9.75.

Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy Dissidia for the PSP will cost €9.99/£7.99/AU$14.45. The PSP/PS Vita version of Final Fantasy Dissidia will go for slightly less: €8.99/£7.29/AU$13.25.

Bulgaria, Hungary, and Qatar are all exempt from the sale and won’t be getting the sale prices on Final Fantasy games. For specific titles, other countries such as Hungary, Israel, Kuwait, and Turkey will also be left out of the sale.

Early in the year is a good time to catch up on the classics, before big summer titles such as Grand Theft Auto V begin to hit stores. Also, discounts are just what gamers will need to feed their habit this year while simultaneously saving up for the next-generation consoles rumored to be launching this fall.

Demon’s Souls, however, brought back the frustration of early gaming. The game won many awards and glowing reviews despite its high level of difficulty. And though its successor, Dark Souls, has claimed the recent spotlight, many gamers still consider Demon’s Souls to be the superior game.

With that in mind, Atlus today announced that Demon’s Souls will soon be available for download through the PlayStation Network. Starting Tuesday, January 8, U.S. PlayStation 3 owners will be able to purchase the digital version of the game for $20.

As a celebratory gesture, Atlus is holding what it calls the “Pure White World Tendency” event from January 8 to 14. The event “slightly reduces the difficulty of the game and opens up a few things that can only be accessed in the Pure White state.” Lowering the difficulty, even just a little, doesn’t seem to be in the spirit of the Souls games, but it could certainly ease-in newcomers who have been coddled by the blockbuster games released this past holiday season.

Speaking of the holiday season, Valve’s Steam Holiday Sale is still going strong, and Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition is half-off until 1 pm EST tomorrow, January 4.

Capcom announced at New York Comic-Con that Darkstalkers Resurrection would be hitting XBLA and PSN early next year. The game collects Night Warriors and Darkstalkers 3 into a single package. It’s similar to the recently released Marvel vs Capcom Origins, but better only on the basis of it being Darkstalkers. Here’s the first trailer:

It should be noted that this is the first Darkstalkers release since the PSP launch title – Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower. Sure, characters from Darkstalkers have shown in up other titles like Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but it’s been too long since these guys have had their own game. Here’s hoping the success of this title convinces Capcom to make an all new Darkstalkers title.

The game will be released on XBLA and PSN early next year for $14.99. It will feature the netcode that powered Street Fighter III’s online multiplayer.

Keeping that in mind, the latest trailer for Tokyo Jungle has just been released. The game invites players to take on the role of one of dozens of animals, fighting to survive in the urban jungle of a post-apocalyptic Tokyo. Players can take on the role of cats, dogs, elephants, giraffes, pandas, or even dinosaurs. If nothing else, it should be like nothing gamers have ever seen and in the current age of video game sequels, that is welcome.

The game was developed at PlayStation C.A.M.P., a developer talent search program that Sony implemented to help indie developers in Japan have their ideas realized. Tokyo Jungle launches on the PlayStation Network in the U.S. on September 25.

The Twitter feed for YourAnonNews just alerted everybody to a PasteBin dump that claims to have hacked the PSN. The guy behind it says that he’s not on Twitter, Facebook or IRC. I’ve never heard of an Anonymous member not on IRC, but let’s indulge him for now.

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@YourAnonNews

.@Sony Hacked, @PlayStation Network Pwned | http://t.co/KANcY5As | #PSN | #Anonymous

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41 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

Here’s the statement from the alleged hacker on PasteBin:

Think outside the box.

I am a man with no name, I’m the man behind Anonymous, hence “master & card visa takedown in 2010″

FBI, will you seize the innocent doors,or a devil behind that door whos staring right at’cha?

I got no twitter,facebook, neither I go in IRC.. if someone takes credit for this pwnage, he’s a faggot.

What’s the target?…It’s SONY, MOTHERF*CKER.

The hacker claims to have the entire PSN database of 10 million accounts. What’s strange is that there were over 70 million accounts compromised in last year’s attack. Regardless, he says that the entire thing is sized at 50 GB and is willing to give it to anybody who emails him.

The PasteBin dump includes a list of alleged usernames, passwords and email addresses for a number of users. The usernames and passwords are all encrypted, while the email addresses are not.

If true, this would be the second time that Sony’s PSN has been hacked by Anonymous. The first time saw the service go down around the world for more than a month as Sony worked to get everything back up.

Kotaku points out that the PasteBin list is similar to one from a few months back. The dump contained credentials for people working at Universal Music Group. Add to that the fact that the suspected hacker gets the number of PSN accounts wrong, and you have a troll trying to get a rile out of people.

For now, it looks like this is all just a ruse to get a reaction out of PSN gamers. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to change your password, but it looks fake for now.

UPDATE: Shane Bettenhausen at Sony just told Kotaku that Anonymous’ claim is “totally fake.” You can go back to playing your games now.

The July 25th release date will include 5 games:

- Resident Evil Code: Veronica (Capcom): ¥1,200

-Kessen (Tecmo Koei): ¥1,500

- Shin Contra (aka “Contra: Shattered Soldier,” Konami): ¥1,200

- Dragon Force (Sega): ¥800

- Siren (Sony): ¥1,200

Soon afterwards the title choice will expand by offering even more PS2 titles. These new releases will appear once a month and will include titles like:

- Dead or Alive 2 Hard Core (Tecmo Koei): ¥1,500

- Castlevania (Konami): ¥1,200

- Dynamite Dekka (aka Die-Hard Arcade, Sega): ¥800

- Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box (Sega): ¥800

- Dark Cloud (Sony): ¥1,200

Hopefully Sony will get on the ball and bring this service to the US. There are a lot of die hard Playstation fans that called it quits the day the PS3 lost its backwards compatibility for PS2 games. Just when I thought Sony was listening too!

That is the good news. The bad news is that the update won’t simply enable all PSOne Classics. According to a Sony representative, support for PSOne games will be rolled out a few at a time following the new firmware. The good news in this is that at least if you have already bought a PS One game, like every Final Fantasy game, You do not have to buy them again.

Now that Sony has figured this out, maybe they start to work on other problems that the PS Vita users or potential users want. Like full PS3 manipulation?

This months offerings aren’t quite as good, but they are interesting to say the least. Included in the offerings are 3 new games. Gotham City Impostors which is a surprisingly good first person shooter set in the world of Batman. Pacman Championship Edition XD which is a highly addictive and highly stressful version of Pacman. And finally Renegade Ops is a vehicular based twin stick shooter that looks pretty good.

Of course there are 3 titles that dropped off of the list, but this weeks titles are pretty good to replace them. Also the PSN Summer sale is still going strong with some great offers on some great games like the brand new Rainbow Moon RPG.