Identity-Aware Proxy Meets Microsoft Presidio: Real-Time Identity and Data Protection

A firewall can’t tell you who is on the other side. An Identity-Aware Proxy can.

When combined with Microsoft Presidio, it does more — it inspects the data flowing through, identifies sensitive information, and enforces policy before anything leaves your control. This pairing blends authentication, authorization, and real-time data protection into a single, no-compromise gate.

Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP) works by sitting between the user and your application, verifying identity using systems like OAuth, SAML, or OpenID Connect before granting access. It doesn’t rely on IP ranges or static network rules. It checks who you are, what you can do, and whether the request meets the rules you’ve set.

Microsoft Presidio is an open-source tool for detection, classification, and anonymization of sensitive data such as PII, PHI, and financial details. It scans text, documents, and messages in real time, returning actionable metadata. Presidio can run as an API service, easily integrated into existing workflows.

Deploying an Identity-Aware Proxy with Microsoft Presidio means every request passes two tests:

1. Identity verification — the proxy checks credentials and context.
2. Data inspection — Presidio analyzes payloads and flags or masks sensitive content on the fly.

This architecture is well-suited for zero trust environments and compliance-heavy industries. Sensitive endpoints remain protected even if the network perimeter is breached. Developers can integrate this pattern at the ingress layer, ensuring inspection happens before any backend service executes logic.

To implement:

• Set up an IAP supported by your cloud provider or use open-source tooling like oauth2-proxy or Pomerium.
• Deploy Presidio as a microservice or container, configured with relevant recognizers for your data types.
• Route incoming requests through the proxy, then pipe message bodies to Presidio for analysis.
• Apply masking, redaction, or rejection rules based on detection output.

The result is identity-driven access control paired with automated data loss prevention. Minimal attack surface. Maximum policy enforcement.

You can connect these components in minutes. See it live at hoop.dev and secure your stack with an Identity-Aware Proxy powered by Microsoft Presidio today.