The engineers at Sony can't be too thrilled with fighting the constant battle against PSP hackers, issuing firmware updates that "strengthen security" in a futile attempt to curb piracy and homebrew applications. Going by a recent survey commissioned by Sony Computer Entertainment, passed on to us by a reader who was asked to take part, the company seems to be looking into the reasons why PSP owners are opening up their portables.

Sony reps call the survey a part of "ongoing PSP consumer research", attempting to learn more about the size of the PSP hacking population and the mentality behind the behavior. Questions like "Do you know of anyone who has "hacked," or modified, transferred and customized their PSP firmware and software?" were included elsewhere in the poll.

We're following up with Sony to learn more about its research.