Microsoft has reported several high profile hacks in recent weeks. The State Department, Commerce, and other government agencies have seen significant attacks and breaches from Chinese state actors.

US government agencies aren’t the only ones attacked on the regular. US corporations are frequent targets for hackers and criminals. Google wants to try a new policy aimed at minimizing threats to its IT security. Their new policy? Ban workers from using the Internet.

Yeah, it’s a strange policy for an Internet company, but El Goog is trying out the Department of Defense’s old adage, “if the computer isn’t plugged in the wall, it can’t get hacked.” The new pilot program will have some employees using Internet-free desktop PCs at work.

The reason Google is trying this new policy is that often times, compromising the ‘right’ employee and their workstation could lead to disastrous results. Last week, Microsoft was breached by Chinese state actors and stole one of their cryptographic keys. The breach exposed 25 organizations to attack including government agencies. The new pilot program will disable Internet access on selected desktops except to internal Google tools and websites. The original ideas was to start the program with 2,500 employees but after some hostile feedback the number is lower.

It’s amazing that after lauding the Internet as a mandatory tool for technology work, we’re going back to removing the Internet for employees at an Internet company.