Office macro blocking

Office macro blocking is the configuration that stops VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) macros from running in Word, Excel or PowerPoint files, apart from signed macros or those stored in approved locations. For years, the booby-trapped attachment was the favorite way in for loaders such as Emotet or Qakbot, which cleared the path for ransomware. The employee opened the fake invoice, clicked "Enable Content", and the macro pulled down the rest. In 2022 Microsoft changed the default: a macro inside a file that came from the internet, flagged by the Mark of the Web, is blocked and can no longer be switched on with one click. Within months attackers moved to other formats, ISO images, LNK shortcuts, then OneNote files. The cyber application asks whether macros are disabled or limited to signed ones, and how: group policy, an endpoint management tool, or a written instruction to staff. The difference shows up at claim time. An instruction does not hold up against an accountant rushing a month-end close; a central policy is enforced on the machine whatever the user wants. None of this is visible from outside, so verification goes through a screenshot of the policy or an interview with the IT lead. Macro settings are one of the eight measures in Australia's Essential Eight, which is why so many applications modeled on it carry the question. The caveat comes from the business side. Finance and actuarial teams live in macro-heavy workbooks, and an exception granted to a whole department, with no signing requirement, lets the risk back in through the side door, precisely among the people who receive outside files.