A few months after disabling macros by default in its Office office suite, Microsoft is turning around under pressure from users.
Earlier this year, Microsoft took the drastic step of blocking VBA macros downloaded online in its Office applications by default. The main reason for this decision was that macros were actively exploited by hackers to infect machines and by extension corporate networks, by injecting them with malware.
To achieve this, hackers mostly used phishing-type attacks, in particular by sending e-mails in which infected Office documents were inserted. By choosing to block VBA macros in Office by default, Microsoft adopted a radical and effective solution to prevent the risk of infection.
However, this change only lasted a few months. For a few days, users of the Office suite have noticed that VBA macros were no longer automatically blocked in downloaded documents.
The return of macros in Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio and Word, Microsoft, was formalized in the process by the Redmond firm, which indicates that it made this change following negative feedback from users.
“Based on feedback, we are reverting this change to the current channel. We appreciate the feedback we’ve received so far and are working to improve this experience. We will provide another update when we are ready to post again on the current channel. Thanks. ” Microsoft split in an update published on the document online regarding blocking macros.
“Based on the feedback received, a restoration has begun. A restoration update is in progress. I apologize for any inconvenience of the restoration starting before the change update is available. ” also commented Angela Robertson, a Microsoft employee in the comments of a post published on the blog Tech Community from last February.
For the time being, Microsoft has not shared any other element that could justify this astonishing and unexpected turnaround.
Source :
Bleeping Computer