Biometric digital ID providers partner with Microsoft on decentralized ID, passwordless pilot

Microsoft is launching its decentralized identity credentials for public preview this spring, and partnered up with many leading device-based biometrics providers to do so, according to an announcement at its Ignite conference and in a blog post.

Azure Active Directory verifiable credentials (AAD VCs) are intended to provide secure, user-controlled, revocable credentials that support Zero Trust security strategies. They will do this in part through a partnership with leading biometric digital ID providers such as Acuant. The partners will work on improving verifiability and data security.

Microsoft will release its SDK in the next few weeks to allow developers to build the applications that issue and use the credentials.

Users will be able to use the Microsoft Authenticator App to share university transcripts, diplomas, and professional credentials at first, with plans to expand it to other credentials as new applications are developed.

The system is already being piloted at Japan’s Keio University, by the government of Flanders, Belgium, and the UK’s National Health Service.

Wired points out that the Solarwinds hack took advantage of flaws in organizations’ implementations of Active Directory, but the decentralized platform means that should an attack succeed in accessing stored data, it will be impossible to decrypt it without the private key held by the user.

With thanks to Biometric Update. the full story is here: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202103/biometric-digital-id-providers-partner-with-microsoft-on-decentralized-id-passwordless-pilot

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