the internet & work

Our company (engineering) has decided to discontinue the access for all employees to the internet. we are going to set up standalone computers for internet access only. I am curious as to wether other companies are doing this? This is supposed to be a security issue, I am in disagreement with this. I know this will create problems for those that use the internet for reasearch, spec’s, etc. But I am not in the management circle of our company. Looking for comments. Thanks