SAN FRANCISCO - Online payment firm PayPal announced that the company will offer a hardware key fob to users as an additional way of securing their accounts.

The PayPal Security Key generates a new six-digit number every 30 seconds and displays the number when a button is pressed. Users that pay $5, a fee that is waived for business customers, will receive a key that they can then register to their account.

The company made the announcement last week at the RSA Security Conference, saying that the offering in the United States is a "public beta." The security key is the latest measure by the company to help lock down its users, Michael Barrett, chief information security officer for the subsidiary of eBay, told SecurityFocus.

"Others have looked for a silver bullet to solve their security problems," Barrett said. "We are filling our gun with buckshot."

PayPal, and its parent company eBay, generally top the list of brands targeted by phishing attacks. In November, a fan of the band Linkin Park allegedly hacked the PayPal and cell-phone accounts of lead singer Chester Bennington.

Other security measures taken by PayPal, includes using both DomainKeys and SenderID to help the largest e-mail providers weed out phishing attacks. The company boasts that its fraud rate, 0.41 percent, is lower than the credit card industry.