Microsoft is requiring all China-based employees to stop using Android smartphones for work and switch to Apple iPhones for cybersecurity reasons.
Microsoft employees in China will now have to verify their identity using the Microsoft Authenticator password manager and Identity Pass app on their iPhones to log into their work devices, and access from Android will no longer be available.
As Bloomberg reports, Microsoft notified hundreds of affected employees through an internal memo, saying that each employee would receive an iPhone 15 and could pick it up at select locations in mainland China or Hong Kong, meaning phones from brands like Xiaomi, Huawei, Redmi, OnePlus, and Oppo would be unavailable.
In a statement to PCMag, Microsoft explained that the change is necessary because the required apps are currently only available through the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store: “The Microsoft Authenticator and Identity Pass apps are officially available on the Apple and Google Play Stores. Because Google Mobile Services is not available in the region, we want to provide employees with a way to access these required apps, including on their iOS devices,” the representative explained.
The shift to security-based apps for employees in the region is part of Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative, launched in November 2023 to overhaul its cybersecurity standards. Despite the policy, Russian hackers managed to break into Microsoft’s corporate email system earlier this year. In February, a third-party cybersecurity firm also accessed Microsoft’s internal data on an unpassworded Azure cloud server.
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Federal regulators said in April after a seven-month investigation that Microsoft needed to “fundamentally” reform its cybersecurity policies. The panel blamed the company’s corporate culture for a China-backed email hack in which Chinese hackers used forged Microsoft authentication tokens to gain access to U.S. government Outlook accounts.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from Microsoft.
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