Microsoft Office Excel Spreadsheets Are Being Used to Spread Malware! Here’s How

Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets still spread malware in recent phishing campaigns.

A recent cybersecurity report found out that Excel spreadsheets, which most of us assume are pretty harmless, turn out to still be exploited by threat actors out there.

Microsoft Office Excel Spreadsheets and Malware

To most Microsoft Office users, Excel might be a relatively boring part of the whole suite.

Well, spreadsheets, in general, are not the most exciting thing for most. It is more of a means to keep track of various stuff and help its users be more organized.

Although it is undoubtedly handy, its users don't talk about it that much.

But who would have thought that spreadsheets have become an avenue for cyberattackers to spread malware?

It is worth noting that Microsoft already attempted to prevent threat actors from using Excel spreadsheets to carry out their attacks, as per a news story by Tech Radar.

In fact, the renowned Redmond-based tech giant has already updated its Excel software and blocked all 4.0 macros by default. The move should restrict the criminal minds abusing its features from distributing malware to their victims.

However, Tech Radar further notes in its report that cybersecurity experts were not entirely sold on the solution of Microsoft. To be more precise, some of these security folks predict that the attackers would only look for a new attack vertical.

Malware on Spreadsheets

Despite all that, a new report from cybersecurity researchers at Netskope revealed that threat actors continue to exploit Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets.

It appears that the Excel phishing campaign is still trendy among cyber attackers.

This time, the cybersecurity findings say that threat actors are now targeting users who have yet to update their Excel software versions, which now come with protection from such attacks.

That said, those who are still clinging to the unprotected versions of Microsoft Office are still vulnerable to malware-spreading phishing attacks.

According to a recent report by the United States Sun, the experts from Netskope discovered that in nearly two weeks this June, they have found roughly a thousand Excel spreadsheets with malicious malware.

Malicious Spreadsheet Phishing Campaign

Threat actors have been using Excel spreadsheets to spread malware using their sophisticated phishing campaigns.

The criminal minds send out a malicious email that comes with Excel files containing Emotet malware.

Meanwhile, as per a report by Malware Bytes, the notorious Emotet malware enables cybercriminals to steal the banking information of its victims.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Teejay Boris