Fergie's Tech Blog

Reported Malfunction in PayPal Security Key

Dan Goodin writes on Channel Register:

When eBay rolled out the PayPal Security Key earlier this year, its executives hailed it as an important measure that would make users more secure. And it was. By generating a random, six-digit number every 30 seconds that users needed to authenticate themselves online, the small electronic token provided an additional layer of protection against phishers and other online criminals.

But according to Chris Romero, an IT administrator who has used the Security Key for several months now, a bug could allow phishers and others with bad intent to work around the measure. When accessing his PayPal account from merchant sites and other third-party destinations, he says, his account is validated when he types in any six-digit number, as long as he provides a valid user id and password and answers an accompanying security question.

posted by Fergie @ 11/28/2007 04:14:00 PM