Microsoft has moved to reassure users of the Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise suite that its decision last week to rollback new cyber security measures blocking the use of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) by default macros is a temporary measure, and the policy will be reenacted in the near future.

The reversal of the blocking policy – which was implemented to better protect Office users, particularly remote ones, from inadvertently downloading malware by throwing extra layers of security in their way – caught users by surprise, with many frustrated that the change was not communicated to them.

The rollback also caused confusion in the security community, as the policy appeared to have been working quite well, with threat actors forced to switch up their campaign tactics because it was becoming less effective to simply spam users with tainted .docx or .xlsx files.

Redmond has now responded to the questions raised by the rollback, and revealed that it took the decision to suspend the policy while it makes some needed tweaks.

“Following user feedback, we have rolled back this change temporarily while we make some additional changes to enhance usability,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Computer Weekly in comments emailed on 11 July.

“This is a temporary change, and we are fully committed to making the default change for all users,” they added. “Regardless of the default setting, customers can block internet macros through the Group Policy settings described in this article. 

“We will provide additional details on timeline in the upcoming weeks.”

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252522559/Microsoft-VBA-macro-block-will-return