Students are reporting the greatest number of problems with virus infection, though we are beginning to see abundant infection of faculty and staff files as well. Macro viruses are no longer an isolated threat at Whitman. They pose a significant hazard to the information on your computer or floppy disks. However, by understanding some basic information about macro viruses and by taking a few simple protective measures, it is easy to minimize or even eliminate the risk to your files. This document answers basic questions about what macro viruses are, how to protect your files from infection, and how to detect and eliminate them.
Macro viruses are a relatively common type of virus.
They are different from traditional viruses, which generally infect programs, because they are able to infect documents . The macro viruses we are seeing on campus are primarily infecting Microsoft Word documents, but macro viruses do exist that are able to infect Microsoft Excel worksheets as well. Files that use any application that has a macro language are potentially vulnerable. Once your Normal file is infected, any subsequent file you create or open will become infected as well. The effects of macro viruses range from annoying to very destructive.