Security News > 2020 > April > Microsoft Office 365: This new feature will keep you safe from malware-filled documents

Application Guard for Office and Safe Documents will make phishing attacks harder and the Office experience better for users, starting with Office 365 Pro Plus and E5 licences.

It's a big step forward because Office macros, embedded scripts, active content like OLE and COM controls, and documents with obfuscated links to malware remain a major source of attacks - and Protected View leaves a key security decision up to users who may be ill-equipped to decide which documents are safe.

There is still a way to take documents out of the Application Guard sandbox, using the Safe Documents feature that's already in Office Insider public preview.

It will work automatically for Outlook attachments, documents downloaded from any domain that's not your intranet or a trusted site, and files in untrusted folders like the Temporary Internet folder, as long as Application Guard is enabled as a Windows 10 feature, the documents are opened in Office 365 ProPlus and you have either a Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 Security E5 license.

Because Safe Documents and Application Guard feed information about dangerous documents back into the Microsoft Security Graph, they indirectly protect users who don't have Office 365 ProPlus or an E5 licence.

News URL

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsoft-office-365-this-new-feature-will-keep-you-safe-from-malware-filled-documents/#ftag=RSS56d97e7