Security baseline for Office 365 ProPlus and Office 2016 apps

Microsoft has released their recommended security settings for Office 365 ProPlus and Office 2016 apps to balance both security and usability: 

 

"Microsoft is pleased to announce the final release of the recommended security configuration baseline settings for Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016 and Office 365 ProPlus 2016 apps." 

 

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/secguide/2018/02/13/security-baseline-for-office-2016-and-office-365-proplus-apps-final/

 

This includes "importable GPOs, scripts for applying the GPOs to local policy, a custom administrative template (ADMX) file for Group Policy settings, all the recommended settings in spreadsheet form and as Policy Analyzer rules". 

 

This baseline features stronger macro security, helps defend against malware by blocking Flash ActiveX activation within Office documents and is a more streamlined, purposeful baseline that is easier to configure, deploy, and validate.

 

 

Like any significant change to a configuration, this baseline should be thoroughly tested and validated before implementing but I highly recommend admins take up the gauntlet!