Editorial

Onfido to power onboarding for Microsoft’s new digital wallet for identity credentials

Onfido to provide identity verification and onboarding for Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory verifiable credentials

Posted 6 April 2021 by Christine Horton


Onfido is to provide identity verification and onboarding for Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) verifiable credentials.

Azure AD verifiable credentials, now in public preview, provide an open standards approach to re-using verified information about a business or user to provide access to new services. Once a person’s real identity is bound to their digital identity using Onfido’s document plus selfie verification, end-users are onboarded to Azure AD and have control over their identity from their smartphone, being able to provision its reuse to access additional services.

At launch, the service can accelerate remote onboarding of new employees, provide secure access to apps that require different permission levels with single sign-on (SSO), and “enable a more trustworthy, self-service account recovery experience across government, education, and financial service applications.”

Identity verification firm Acuant also announced its collaboration with Microsoft today to improve verifiability in Azure AD through its My Digital ID offering.

Identity scenarios for Azure AD

With the average person managing more than 191 pairs of usernames and passwords, password management can become unmanageable and insecure, says Onfido.

People can manage credentials in the Microsoft Authenticator app, and developers will be able to request and verify credentials via the application SDK. The process improves verifiability while protecting privacy for businesses, employees, contractors, vendors, and customers.

Workforce identity scenarios for Azure AD include faster remote onboarding, self-service enrollment and account recovery and verified access to apps.

“Putting people in control of their own identity will help transform the way global employees, customers, and businesses access remote services,” said Rick Hofmann, VP of partnerships & alliances at Onfido.

“Being able to verify a person’s identity once at onboarding, and then reuse those credentials to access many different services from different providers without collecting and storing personal data is a game-changer. Individuals get more control over what information they share, and businesses can provide a more seamless onboarding experience.”

“Our vision is to provide the platform for a digital identity in which individuals have more control over what information they share and can restrict access if needed,” said Sue Bohn, partner director program management, identity division at Microsoft. “Collaborating with Onfido empowers businesses to verify information at scale while ensuring users have greater control over their personal information.”

The Gartner Predicts 2020: Identity and Access Management report states that “Decentralized identity is making a debut in 2021 and will disrupt traditional methods of access for many providers, as it will be used for 25 percent of all bring your own identity (BYOI) logins by 2023.”