Avast buys Canada's SecureKey, specialising in digital identity

Prague, March 24 (CTK) - Cybersecurity firm Avast, established in Czechia, has bought Canadian company SecureKey Technologies, which specialises in digital identity and whose solutions enable over 200 million secure digital identity transactions worldwide every year, Avast said in a press release today.

Avast did not disclose the transaction price.

SecureKey has developed for example Verified.me, the first distributed digital identity verification network of its kind, which helps Canadian users securely verify their identities. It also offers Government Sign-In, a service for logging into hundreds of government online services and applications.

"It's clear that digital identity is the critical enabler for many digital services and SecureKey's success reflects the growing demand for this from consumers," said Avast CEO Ondrej Vlcek.

"SecureKey is highly complementary to Avast's prior work in Identity and together we will take our offer to the next level, accelerating innovation and working to establish a user-focused, global approach that aligns user, business, and government propositions," he said.

The turnover of the digital identity and authentication market is forecast to reach USD266bn by 2027.

Digital identity is an essential element for many online services, which is why Avast plans to work with SecureKey Technologies to create products that put people back in control of their data while facilitating communication between users, businesses and government, according to the press release.

SecureKey's technology will expand Avast's new digital identity protection product offer, which is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2022.

hel/er/bst