According to a report in the Financial Times, Google is not allowing new employees to use Microsoft Windows, as a security measure.

The search giant will offer new employees the choice of Apple’s OS X or Linux, according to the report, in order to reduce the risk of a repeat of an attack in January which google says originated in China, and which came through a flaw in Internet Explorer

“We’re not doing any more Windows”

“We’re not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort,” a Google employee told the FT, and apparently the operating system will be phased out starting with new staff.

Windows was not an option for desktop computers, even before the hack in January apparently resulted in a theft of Google’s source code. Now laptop users are also expected not to run the Microsoft operating system – and anyone who wants to go against the policy will have to get approval from as high as the CIO (chief information officer).

Many Google employees will already be running the company’s Chrome OS, a stripped down web-only operating system based on Google’s Chrome browser. This has yet to appear as a fully-fledged product, but eWEEK has reviewed the developer edition.

Google has declined to make any response to the story so far.