Microsoft Office documents that contain embedded macros can be dangerous to your computer's security. Macros are pieces of programming code that, historically, have been malware carriers for years, so much so that no one ever activated macros for fear of activating a virus.
Although modern versions of Office already have protection against macros since 2007, they are still potentially dangerous if activated manually.
What is a macro "> AutoExec" to start automatically or " AutoOpen " to run automatically every time you open any document.
In this way, the macro virus can integrate into Word, infecting all future documents .
The most famous macro virus was called Melissa which in 1999 created many problems and spread as a Word document containing a macro virus.
When you opened Word 97 or Word 2000, the macro collected the first 50 entries in the Outlook address book and sent them the virus-infected document.
Newer versions of Microsoft Office protect against macro viruses .
Office 2003 added a macro security feature so that unsigned macros with a trusted certificate could not be executed.
Later versions of Microsoft Office then became even more restrictive.
Office 2013 is set up so that all macros are disabled.
Also, since Office 2007, Office files have changed extensions and are saved with the suffix "x", for example Docx, Xlsx and Pptx for Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
These files cannot contain macros .
When a document incorporates a macro it has an extension ending in m, that is: docm, xlsm and pptm .
It therefore becomes easy to locate and avoid opening a file with the built-in macro.
The result of this weakening and easy recognition have led macro viruses to be much less common today.
To protect yourself, you just have to be careful to run macros embedded in your own documents or from trusted authors, without any need to give up this important function.
Macros are like any other computer program and can be used in a good way, becoming a valuable ally for anyone who works with Office or with bad intentions.
As with any other program, the important thing is to run only macros from trusted sources.
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