[German]Microsoft has now released Application Guard for Office 365 users who have booked certain licenses, effective January 27, 2021. This is according to an announcement in the tech community. This security feature allows Office documents to be opened in a virtualized environment.
Protection against threats from the Internet
Files from the Internet and other potentially unsafe locations can contain viruses, worms or other types of malware that can harm the system and data stored in Windows. To protect users from these threats, Microsoft also provides Application Guard for Microsoft Office 365. This allows Office applications to open files from potentially unsafe locations in Application Guard. Application Guard provides a secure container isolated from the rest of your data through hardware-based virtualization (Hyper-V).
Unlike the protected document view, users can securely read, edit, print, and save Office files opened in Application Guard without having to reopen files outside the container. If a function is blocked by Application Guard, and the user is certain that the file does not contain malware or malicious functions, the user can remove Application Guard protection for that file.
Application Guard requirements
Application Guard is available to organizations that have Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 Mobility + Security licenses. Users in these organizations must be using Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise on the Current Channel or Monthly Enterprise Channel, as Microsoft indicates in this document. There's also an extensive FAQ there around Application Guard's features. A detailed guide listing the requirements can be found in the Microsoft document Application Guard for Office for admins.
