TORONTO - SecureKey Technologies Inc., a provider of next generation authentication solutions, has been awarded the ACT Canada 2009 Canadian Innovation Award in Banking and Finance.

"It is extremely gratifying to be recognized by ACT Canada given the organization's 20 year history of promoting the awareness, understanding and use of advanced card technologies" says Greg Wolfond, Chairman and CEO of SecureKey.

SecureKey's solution enables online service providers to accept contactless cards or NFC devices as a second factor of authentication by their customers to increase the security and convenience of transacting online.

"The ability to leverage all forms of CHIP cards carried by customers as a strong second factor of authentication will significantly thwart online fraud. This is the most innovative solution I've seen in a long time" says Catherine Johnston, President and CEO of ACT Canada.

While contactless technology was initially implemented in credit and debit cards to facilitate small, in-person retail purchases, SecureKey's solution leverages these same cards to provide stronger authentication for online financial services, online payments and network access.