Ask HN: Technical Solutions to Protecting IP

[iroddis]

Hello HN,

Legal methods seem like the best way to protect IP from a business perspective, but it's a big step to take for a solo developer taking on their first new hire.

Do you have any recommendations on how to protect IP and code/data copying by an employee? I've seen solutions as heavyweight as VPNs + virtual desktops (VDIs like Citrix), but I'm wondering what a typical small startup security setup looks like.

[nullindividual]

How are you planning on stopping the camera on a phone?

You need legal protection.

[iroddis → nullindividual]

A large codebase would require many pictures. Maybe it's possible if you took a video and figured out a way to optimally scroll the data so as to reconstitute the codebase via AI / OCR, but that's a lot more work than most people are willing to put into it.

The goal isn't to stop all possible avenues of IP extraction, just to make the barrier a bit higher than git clone / git push.

[nullindividual → iroddis]

You still need legal protection. You have no IP protection without it.

Good luck!

[brudgers]

Hiring someone good and treating them well is even better than lawyers.

Don't put your energy into making things suck.

Good luck.