{"id":7636,"date":"2018-03-21T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T12:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/?p=7636"},"modified":"2024-07-08T06:06:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T10:06:00","slug":"ms-office-doc-dangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2018\/03\/21\/ms-office-doc-dangers\/","title":{"rendered":"MS Office doc dangers: Macros &#038; enabled content pose risks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7639\" src=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers.png\" alt=\"&quot; &quot;\" width=\"358\" height=\"231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers.png 358w, https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers-125x81.png 125w, https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers-300x194.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 358px) 100vw, 358px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Macros are small bits of programming used in Microsoft Office docs to automate tasks. Unfortunately, they can also spread viruses and malware, and anti-virus programs cannot always catch them. Infected Office docs are typically spread through email attachments or download links, or even through cloud services like Office 365.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>What you can do<\/b><\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you were not expecting an email attachment or shared doc <\/span><b>check with the sender<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> before opening it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Look at the URL\/address.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Hover over links in emails with your mouse to reveal the actual URL or web address. If it is not a familiar address or a service U-M uses for document sharing, don&#8217;t click.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Preview the doc in U-M Google Drive<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Google will not run Microsoft macros, making it a reasonably safe way to save and preview Office docs if you are not sure what it is in them. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1><b>What not to do<\/b><\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Do not enable macros or content.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Check with the document owner\/sender and ask them if macros need to be enabled and why.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Do not open or download a document from an unfamiliar sender.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Look at the &#8220;from&#8221; and &#8220;reply to&#8221; lines, and do not open or download if the sender is unknown to you.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Do not open or download a document shared or stored on a system or service you are unfamiliar with.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">See <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.safecomputing.umich.edu\/be-aware\/phishing-and-suspicious-email\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phishing &amp; Suspicious Email<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for more about avoiding online dangers.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Macros are small bits of programming used in Microsoft Office docs to automate tasks. Unfortunately, they can also spread viruses and malware, and anti-virus programs cannot always catch them. Infected Office docs are typically spread through email attachments or download links, or even through cloud services like Office 365. What you can do If you were not expecting\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2018\/03\/21\/ms-office-doc-dangers\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":7639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_umich_oidc_access":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[391,23],"class_list":["post-7636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-safe-computing","tag-office","tag-security"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers.png",358,231,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers-125x81.png",125,81,true],"medium":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers-300x194.png",300,194,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers.png",358,231,false],"large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers.png",358,231,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers.png",358,231,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers.png",358,231,false],"excerpt-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers-200x140.png",200,140,true],"themonic-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers-60x42.png",60,42,true],"ioslider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers.png",358,231,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers.png",358,231,false],"400x250-crop":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DontsDocDangers.png",358,231,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Matt Ranville, ITS Privacy Office","author_link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/author\/mrr\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Macros are small bits of programming used in Microsoft Office docs to automate tasks. Unfortunately, they can also spread viruses and malware, and anti-virus programs cannot always catch them. Infected Office docs are typically spread through email attachments or download links, or even through cloud services like Office 365. What you can do If you&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7636"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7642,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7636\/revisions\/7642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}