A reader mailed in a snippet from Future Publishing's UK-based Official PSP Guidebook magazine, hinting that the soon to be released PSP Slim and Lite will feature some beefed up security.
[blockquote2]Sony is obviously tight-lipped when it comes to security, and even tighter-lipped when it comes to security measures. Given its aggressive track record and serious work to combat hackers and pirates, it seems likely the PSP Slim and Lite will have something big up it's sleeve. And given the hackers track record, it won't be long before we find out what.[/blockquote2]
Sounds purely speculative to me, but I don't doubt that Sony has added additional protections to prevent older firmwares (aside from the default 3.60) from being able to work. At any rate, we'll know more once the PSP Slim and Lite is officially released in Europe on September 5 and in the US on September 10.