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Ask HN: What do companies do to protect source code?

3 pointsby johnhkgover 9 years ago
Yes, there are NDAs and legal agreements to discourage rogue employees from sharing source code in the public.<p>However, do they have specific processes to ensure that employees don&#x27;t have full source code on their machines &#x2F; laptops ?<p>I have read that some companies like Facebook and Google don&#x27;t allow employees to check out code on their laptops. Code is checked out on developer servers and employees connect to these to work.<p>We need a similar setup in our company, and are looking for pointers to how we could build one.<p>Are there are any products or open-source projects which help in this ?

1 comment

kevinSuttleover 9 years ago
No, your source code is not a &quot;crown jewel&quot; or a &quot;trade secret&quot;. Without people, infrastructure, environments, and keys, it&#x27;s just a load of text files.<p>This is a myth propagated by engineers who overvalue their work.<p>Also, Google only has 1 REPO, which everyone in the company has access to. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wired.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;09&#x2F;google-2-billion-lines-codeand-one-place&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wired.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;09&#x2F;google-2-billion-lines-codeand-...</a><p>I love this response as well: &quot;Assuming you are using Git, that means every developer you employ is running around with a complete repository history of your source code on their laptop. They probably also have internal documents regarding design, product management, etc. Many of them probably use a cloud backup service like Mozy&#x2F;Dropbox etc. I don&#x27;t think Github is the weakest link in this chain. That aside, source code is typically far from your most valuable asset, especially if you&#x27;re a SaaS offering like many startups. What could a competitor do with your code, absent your people and your branding? Even if it were, Github would probably be the least of your security concerns.&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quora.com&#x2F;Do-any-startups-use-GitHub-as-a-repository-for-their-private-proprietary-code&#x2F;answer&#x2F;Joseph-Ruscio?srid=8yD&amp;share=1" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quora.com&#x2F;Do-any-startups-use-GitHub-as-a-reposi...</a>