Tim 'TK' Keanini, CTO of , explains, "If the encryption keys were stored unencrypted somewhere convenient to the system it could also have been convenient to the hacker." Keanini also stressed that all we really have to go on right now are assumptions, but pointed out that even an unsophisticated attacker can figure out how to bypass or circumvent weak security practices.

Anup Ghosh, founder and chief scientist of explained that the fact is that even encrypted data is accessed and used internally, and the decryption typically happens seamlessly in the background for authorized systems or users. So, while encrypted data may be gibberish if extracted directly from the database, an attacker only needs to find the right system on the network to be able to pull the unencrypted information from the database.

All of these points address the feasibility or likelihood that Sony could be telling the truth about encrypting the data, and yet that data could be decrypted and available on the black market. However, we still have the issue of Sony claiming not to have stored the CVV data from the credit cards at all, and yet attackers claim to have that crucial piece of data as well.

If that turns out to be true, Sony could be in big trouble with the PCI-DSS powers that be. Chuvakin says that the PCI-DSS guidelines are very clear about the CVV data--the three-digit code from the back of the credit card can never be stored in any form, whether encrypted or unencrypted. Attackers may have intercepted CVV data in transit rather than acquiring it from the database, but if that information was stored in the database .

Still, if Sony is telling the truth about encrypting the data, it seems it wasn't encrypted very well. It is also possible that attackers are bluffing, or flat-out lying to try to find a sucker willing to pay them for data they don't really have. Only time will tell.