PayPal Security Chief: User Education Remains Greatest Hurdle

SAN FRANCISCO—A sleek, silver, nearly weightless gizmo that fits in your hand represents the next generation of security for customers of eBay’s PayPal division.

The diminutive machine is a wireless password-generation device that the company plans to begin distributing to its users beginning on Feb. 12 to help its customers further validate the authenticity of the online payment system— a product of necessity to help fight the litany of phishing attacks and fraud schemes that seek to rip-off PayPal’s more than 130 million registered members.

Depressing the single button on the oval handheld, which is roughly the size of a pack of gum, produces a one-time password that PayPal users will be able to enter into its Web pages to ensure they are not instead logging onto one of the legions of fake URLs created by fraudsters to steal the San Jose, Calif.-based company’s customers’ screen names, passwords and money.

Yet, despite the pending launch of the next generation of PayPal security, Michael Barrett, the company’s chief information security officer, admits the online payment leader will still be troubled by phishing and other attacks.

Read the full story on eWEEK.com: PayPal Security Chief: User Education Remains Greatest Hurdle.