Security News > 2022 > July > Office macro security: on-again-off-again feature now BACK ON AGAIN!
The phrase Office macros is a harmless-sounding, low-tech name that refers, in real life, to program code you can squirrel away inside Office files so that the code travels along with the text of a document, or the formulas of a spreadsheet, or the slides in a presentation.
Even though the code is hidden from sight in the file, it can nevertheless sneakily spring into life as soon as you use the file in any way.
Curiously it took Microsoft 20 years to block Office macros by default in files that arrived over the internet.
As regular Naked Security readers will know, we were as keen as mustard about this simple change of heart, proclaiming the news, back in February 2022, with the words, "At last!".
Turning this setting on by default felt like an uncontroversial cybersecurity step forward for the vast majority of users, especially given that the few who wanted to live dangerously could use the aforementioned policy edits or registry hacks to turn the security feature back off again.
What to do if you have files on SharePoint or files on a network share.