The solution, the first of its type in EMEA, will deliver significant savings over old style hardware based systems. It provides benefits for both businesses and end-users and is set to revolutionise secure online transactions.

Arcot, has developed the two-factor authentication software solution, which LogicaCMG has built into its own authentication platform 'Assure', supported by a range of services that will now be taken to market in EMEA. Software two-factor authentication has already shown its ability to meet the evolving needs of US organisations, which are increasingly asked to provide their customers with greater security assurances. The product has proved to be highly effective and at the same time greatly reduce the cost of accessing corporate networks and data.

Financial organisations in particular are concerned by the growing levels of fraud and the associated costs, and are looking at ways of increasing levels of user authentication security. Banks and other financial service providers have adopted online customer facing systems as a way of improving service levels and reducing operational costs. Consumers are worried by reports of identity fraud, hacking, phishing, pharming, key logging and man-in-the-middle attacks and there is a fear that they may turn away from this channel, if these issues are not resolved. The cost of a hardware-based system to increase security would be prohibitive, so Assure provides a much needed software solution and support services.

The business benefits of reduced fraud are evident and the Assure solution is underpinned by tried-and-tested software technologies that make it possible to implement authentication as securely as existing hardware solutions, but at a fraction of the cost, offering potential savings of up to 80 per cent.

Tim Best, Director of Enterprise Security Solutions, at LogicaCMG said: "Assure has been developed to deliver truly user friendly and affordable authentication and enable a new waave of digital identity based services. Using Arcot's technology we can now offer our customers this advanced solution to provide massive potential cost-savings when compared with existing hardware-based alternatives."

An additional benefit of software-based solutions is the ease of distribution and portability. It eliminates the need to buy, issue and maintain hardware devices, such as access tokens, secure pin key-fobs, or calculator-style access units, and can be seamlessly integrated with partner applications and existing business processes without expensive user support costs.

For added convenience and security, users of the Assure solution are also able to digitally sign documents and contracts online. The Arcot software used for the Assure solution is embedded in Adobe Acrobat Reader 8 as standard ensuring users are not required to install any new software on their PCs. The uniquely easy-to-use application of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology enables digital signing of documents, offering strong and far better non-repudiation levels than many hardware based systems.

"The smart money is on software-based authentication being the future of security, as solutions like Assure provide organisations with an intelligent solution that can grow and adapt to the changing levels of security and risk management around online transactions and digital identity. We are excited to be able to bring the Assure solution to market in EMEA as we believe it has the potential to have a hugely positive impact on online financial transactions and offers a more flexible and cost effective way for organisations to secure their corporate networks," added Best.

Jonathan Gill, Managing Director of Arcot UK, said: "We are delighted to have been chosen by LogicaCMG as the best-in-class authentication provider. Arcot has been providing strong authentication to banks, merchants and businesses for years. This partnership with LogicaCMG gives us the ability to make our range of strong authentication and digital signing solutions available to businesses across a range of sectors as part of LogicaCMG's IT and business services. It will enable us to further expand and scale our European operations."