These Office applications remained as vulnerable to macro viruses as before. To write the virus, for example, for MS Word one needs only the basics of the VBA programming language. Although compared with other languages VBA is the simplest and easiest to learn, it does provide virus-writers with all the necessary tools to destroy vital data and disable a computer for an extended period of time. It enables macro viruses to access the messaging system - the easiest and fastest way for distribution. Thus they are able to infect millions of computers all over the world.
Macro viruses pose a real threat to computer users.
In spite of these words of doom, you should not become disheartened. And their expertise far outweighs the cumulative potential of the entire hacker movement. Since its inception the computer anti-virus industry has developed many applications to combat computer viruses. Currently we distinguish five main approaches to anti-virus protection. Their mode of operation is based on scanning files and memory and boot sectors for virus signatures, i.e. the unique virus code.