On Monday I was reading my friend Kate’s Blog: My Name is Kate, where she talked about the latest in security features being implemented by PayPal Canada… Verisign digital security keys (shown to the right). These digital key fobs generate a new six digit random number, every 30 seconds, on the command of a push button.

PayPal US has had these for some time, I wrote about them back in March, but they have never been available here in Canada – until now.  After seeing this post I wrote to Kate and mentioned how exciting it was that these were coming to Canada and that I’d love to get my hands on one. Well to my surprise PayPal Canada’s PR team saw my comment and sent me a digital key to demo… W00T! now I’m really excited.
So I quickly open the package and head on over to PayPal’s site to setup my new key.  No joke I was configured in less then 5 minutes for both my PayPal and my ebay accounts, since they are both already linked together.  My only concern with the Digital key is the flimsy looking string that holds this to my key chain, it’s hard to see in the picture, but something a little more robust might be in order for future key designs.
Don’t want to pay 5$ for the security key? Then you have the option to setup the mobile version (SMS charges apply), where PayPal will trigger a 6 digit code via SMS to your mobile device.   Find out more here on the PayPal website.
Phishers beware, their is a new security service in town that is going to make PayPal a much harder nut to crack, event with a user name and password ever changing security key will make these details useless.  Now if only I could convince my back to add these to their security checklist I’d feel that much safer.