My startup had similar rules when we were only 10 people.

Beyond just the Iran issue, it's known that trade secrets on employee laptops are at risk when crossing some international borders, particularly in airports. Border agents can confiscate electronic devices on vague suspicions, compel you to unlock them (or hack them open in some cases), and then leave them in unsupervised settings with yet more border agents who have the barest electronic security training. These risks terrified me during my travels!

Right - this is actually the main reason for such policies; we receive regular training on this.

All devices are subject to search, seizure, and duplication when crossing international borders and border agents may tamper with devices as well. If assets cross borders there has to be a good reason, it has to be documented, and phones/computers may have to be scrubbed before and after depending on circumstances.

This is not the case at most large companies (FAANG) - no special permission is required to take a laptop with you across borders. They'd generally rather you have your laptop with you so you can get work done.

Regardless, this person logged into GitHub, which could have been from any device including a phone.

1) In this case the laptop was taken to Iran, so that's what we are talking about here.

2) I can assure you there's policies at Microsoft that include performing work abroad and accessing any company resources from abroad. Obviously nobody will be approved to access any company resources from Iran, especially not source code.

3) I can say there is policies at MS this with a very high degree of confidence because I personally have done work with Microsoft involving code and data that is export restricted.

4) Companies should have policies in place in order to avoid situations like this. Taking your company laptop to, say, Germany probably isn't a big deal for most companies, but any "exporting" company assets should at least be pre-approved/documented.

I checked with my old classmates who currently work at Microsoft and LinkedIn, and they do not require permission for accessing company resources from abroad. One of them has been working from Israel and Turkey for many months in 2020. Another has been in Mexico since the pandemic began.

I'm not sure what team you worked in, it's possible some teams have stricter policies. If you were doing business with Microsoft, the export control language is boilerplate contract language.