A presence check is a verification control used to confirm that a real user, or sometimes a physical document, is actually present during a proofing step. It is meant to distinguish live interaction from a replay, photo, recording, or automated spoofing attempt.
In cyber security, presence checks matter because many attacks target identity workflows rather than passwords. An attacker may use a deepfake face, synthetic voice, or copied document to satisfy a remote onboarding or reset process. Defenders use liveness prompts, challenge-response actions, device sensors, or document motion tests to make fraud harder. A strong presence check does not prove identity by itself, but it raises the cost of impersonation and helps validate that the signal is coming from a real person in real time.