Microsoft Entra Verified ID Gets New Face Check Feature to Strengthen Protection Against Digital Impersonation

Key Takeaways:

• Microsoft’s Face Check feature uses Azure AI to perform real-time facial matching with trusted identity documents to offer stronger protection against impersonation.
• Organizations can easily set up, issue, and customize verifiable credentials to meet various needs.
• Face Check is a premium feature with accessible pricing, including a free trial with limited verifications and a pay-as-you-go model.

Microsoft has announced that the new Face Check feature is now generally available for Entra Verified ID customers. This new service allows organizations to securely issue verifiable credentials for validating essential claims such as education, employment, residence, and certifications.

Microsoft Entra Verified ID is a decentralized service that enables businesses and organizations to securely issue and verify digital credentials. It allows users to manage their credentials in a digital wallet on their personal devices. Organizations can quickly configure and issue credentials, which can be customized to meet specific needs.

Microsoft highlighted the growing importance of identity verification in response to increasingly sophisticated impersonation tactics like deepfakes. The company says that traditional methods like CAPTCHA are becoming easier for impersonators to bypass, which makes advanced verification essential for enterprise customers.

How does the Face Check feature work?

Microsoft launched Face Check in public preview for its Entra Verified ID service back in February 2024. This feature uses Azure AI Face API to match a person’s real-time selfie with a trusted identity document like a driving license, an employment ID, or passport. The Verified ID feature in the Authenticator app generates a confidence score and shares it with the party who requested a Face Check.

“Face Check with Microsoft Entra Verified ID is a premium feature within Verified ID used for privacy-respecting facial matching. It allows enterprises to perform high-assurance verifications securely, simply, and at scale. Face Check adds a critical layer of trust by performing facial matching between a user’s real-time selfie and a photo,” Microsoft explained.

How to use Face Check with Microsoft Entra Verified ID?

Microsoft notes that its partners have already integrated Face Check with Entra ID to streamline the verification of specific attributes like education, employment status, and government-issued IDs. This new feature aims to reduce the risk of impersonation and account takeover for employees, vendors, and business guests.

Face Check is a premium feature of Microsoft Entra Verified ID and it’s available to both businesses and organizations. Customers can start with a free Entra Suite trial, which includes 8 Face Check verifications per user per month, or choose a pay-as-you-go model at $0.25 per verification. We invite you to check out the Microsoft Entra pricing page for more details.