For many years, fake Microsoft combined with social engineering have deceived many unwittingly by giving attackers the ability to use malicious invoices, shipping notices, or documents that victims believed were legitimate.
The source of the problems is usually macros, which are powerful pieces of code written in Visual Basic that can automate repetitive tasks. Macro-based attacks have been key to the spread of ransomware.
In recent weeks, Microsoft has faced about 400,000 attempted macro attacks on computers detected by its Defender security software, said David Weston, who is Microsoft's director of operating system security.
Avoiding macros is of course the surest way to avoid problems. But their usefulness has often forced companies to “leave the door open.” The Australian Cyber has published a chart showing the risks of different types of macro options.
Macros it actually worked sometimes! (e.g.: Hello! Can you enable macros?).
Microsoft wants to completely block the risk, so it decided to bring Application Guard to Office 365. It's the same security feature found in the Edge browser in Windows 10, which allows administrators to designate trusted websites. If the website is malicious, it doesn't allow them to open it.
Finally, Microsoft is offering a limited preview of Application Guard for the ProPlus version of Office 365.
“You will be able to open an untrusted Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file in a virtualized container,” Lefferts writes.
