From Secure Support to Seamless On-boarding: Using Verified Identity for Better Employee Experiences
Organisations are continuing to face growing security challenges while striving to deliver efficient support and a streamlined employee experience. The help desk stands at the centre of these efforts, serving both as the first line of defence against social engineering threats and as the initial point of contact for staff. By implementing Entra Verified ID within the help desk, organisations can not only safeguard support interactions but also transform the new-hire onboarding process.
- Vishing Attacks Surged 442% in 2024: CrowdStrike reported a dramatic rise in phone-based social engineering, especially vishing (voice phishing) targeting help desks.
- Help Desk Impersonation Became a Common Entry Point: Threat actors increasingly impersonated legitimate employees to trick help desk agents into resetting credentials.
- Over One-Third of Breaches Began with Social Engineering: According to Unit 42’s 2025 report, more than 33% of incident response cases started with social engineering tactics.
- 600 Million Identity Attacks Per Day: Microsoft observed over 600 million identity-based attacks daily in 2024, with threat actors shifting tactics to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) and exploit identity systems.
The help desk frequently handles sensitive requests such as password resets, access provisioning, and incident responses. This makes it a prime target for threat actors seeking to exploit human error or impersonate employees. Traditional authentication methods, such as knowledge-based questions or simple callbacks, are increasingly vulnerable to social engineering attempts. Entra Verified ID is a Microsoft solution enabling organisations to issue, present, and verify secure digital credentials based on open standards. Utilising decentralized identity technology, Entra Verified ID allows employees to prove their identity through cryptographically signed credentials stored in their Microsoft Authenticator digital wallet. This approach provides robust, privacy-respecting authentication, ensuring that only verified individuals can access sensitive help desk services or onboarding processes, while reducing reliance on traditional, easily compromised methods. See how Microsoft Entra Verified ID, combined with the FaceCheck service, provides secure and scalable biometric authentication, enabling real-time facial matching against verifiable credentials…
Securing the Help Desk
The Role of the Help Desk in Security
Entra Verified ID: Definition and Technologies
Benefits of Entra Verified ID for the Help Desk
Extending Entra Verified ID to On-Boarding
The Challenge of Secure On-Boarding
Onboarding is a critical period during which new hires are granted access to corporate resources, receive sensitive information, and begin forming impressions of the organisation’s culture and processes. At the same time, it is a period of heightened security risk, as attackers may attempt to exploit new users’ lack of familiarity or target IT teams with fraudulent access requests.
How Entra Verified ID and Condatis Cenda Transform On-Boarding
Extending help desk security principles to onboarding offers numerous advantages:
- Seamless Account Creation: New hires can verify their identity remotely using biometrics, digital credentials, or government-issued documents. This can automate and streamline the provisioning of accounts, devices, and permissions.
- Consistent Access Control: By integrating Entra Verified ID from the outset, organisations ensure that only genuine employees are granted access, closing gaps that might be exploited later through compromised credentials.
- Personalised On-Boarding Journeys: Entra Verified ID can trigger customised workflows, such as assigning department-specific training or resources, based on the authenticated user’s profile and integration with other Entra Suite products, such as Entra ID, ID Governance, and Global Secure Access.
- Reduced Administrative Overhead: Automated identity verification reduces the manual effort required from HR and IT, allowing them to focus on value-added activities like employee engagement and training.
- Early Security Education: Introducing new employees to secure identity practices during on-boarding sets expectations for responsible behaviour and normalises the use of advanced authentication throughout the organisation.
Case Study: An Automated On-Boarding Journey
Discover how Microsoft Entra Verified ID transforms credential sharing, and watch how workers can securely receive, present, and reuse verified credentials–powered by the Cenda platform…
When selecting an Entra Verified ID solution, organisations should begin by clarifying the business outcome they intend to achieve. Whether it’s enhancing security, accelerating onboarding, reducing manual workload, or improving employee experience. By defining these priorities from the outset, decision-makers can better assess features and alignment with strategic goals, ensuring that implementation delivers meaningful value across HR and IT processes. Map the business outcomes to critical touchpoints, such as account creation, access provisioning, and help desk interactions, without introducing unnecessary friction. Both help desk agents and HR staff must be equipped to support new tools and processes. Regular training and clear documentation are crucial for maintaining both security and a positive employee experience. Respect for user privacy is paramount. Organisations should ensure that biometric and personal data are stored securely, with transparent policies about retention and usage. Implementing Entra Verified ID Solutions: Best Practices
Choosing the Business Outcome
Integrating with Existing Workflows
Staff Training and Change Management
Privacy and Data Protection
Future Possibilities: Beyond On-Boarding
Once established, these identity frameworks can be extended to a host of other employee lifecycle events, promotions, off-boarding, access reviews, and more. This paves the way for a truly zero-trust environment, where every access request is contextually validated, reducing risk without sacrificing productivity.
Securing the help desk with Entra Verified ID solutions is a strategic investment that provides immediate returns in risk reduction and employee trust. When extended to onboarding, it streamlines access, personalises the experience, and establishes a secure foundation from day one. As organisations continue to adapt to the next phase of hybrid and remote work, integrating strong identity across support and HR processes will be essential for safeguarding both digital assets and human capital.