How do you prevent hired developers from stealing code?

security source-code-protection
danielv picture danielv · Sep 5, 2009 · Viewed 8.1k times · Source

I'm in the process of opening up a company that will eventually hire 2-5 developers to work on a large web app.

My main concern is that one or more developers could steal the code. I could make them sign contracts against this type of thing, but I live in a country where the law is "bendable".

Is my only option to lock them up in a room without inet access and usb ports?

I'd love to know how others have solved this problem.

Answer

Mark Allen picture Mark Allen · Sep 5, 2009

  1. Don't hire people you can't trust.

  2. Break the app into sections and only let people work on a subset of the app, never getting access to the whole thing.

  3. Make it worth their while - you're opening a company, hire people and give them some stock options. Make sure it's more attractive for them to make you succeed than otherwise.

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