The ongoing technological fight against counterfeiting demands the development of new anti-counterfeiting strategies based on novel material systems. In this work, we report on a unique material system, employing porous-wall hollow glass microspheres as versatile carriers for functional security materials. To evaluate the feasibility of using these glass microspheres in anti-counterfeiting applications, several deployment configurations and processing routes were developed, whereby microsphere cargo included either (1) precursor functional materials, (2) functional materials, or (3) reactive functional materials. Microspheres were loaded using a wet vacuum technique and subsequently characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and spectral imaging techniques.