To restrict the use of Excel 4.0 (KLM) macros which is a series of commands, Microsoft released a latest Excel Trust Center setting option. Microsoft in a blog post said that as per their planning, they have now made this setting as default while opening Excel 4.0 (XLM) macros. Microsoft claims that the setting will help the customers to protect themselves against related security threats.
Restricting Excel 4.0 to control rise in ransomware
Excel 4.0 has been restricted to control the rise of malware groups including ransomware. The cybercriminals use Excel 4.0 macros as the part of an initial infection. Reports affirm that state-sponsored and cybercriminals attackers started to experiment with legacy Excel 4.0 macros in response to Microsoft in 2018cracking down on macro scripts written in Visual Basic for Application (VBA).
Group policy settings
The Group Policy Settings were announced in July 2021. Now, Microsoft has added few latest policies settings option to this Group Policy Settings. An option to direct the policy settings in the Office cloud policy service has also been added. Administrators can completely block XLM macro usage and the new files that are created by the admins, by turning on the Group Policy, “Prevent Excel from running XLM macros”. The same can be done using registry key or Group Policy Editor. This might also make XLM and VBA malware threats less severe for the admins. Related Security threats have become a common and major issue these days. Cybercriminals have tried every possible way to crash into computer systems and steal all the personal and sensitive data. We have been writing about the ways to help protect your computers and other devices from hackers, malware, and other viruses. Microsoft is quite sensitive when it comes to its customer’s privacy and security. Due to this factor, it has now disabled Excel 4.0 by default.
