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I am developing an ERP application. Next month I will recruit 2 employees, developers.

The application consists of two parts:

  1. The core of the system
  2. modules.

Is there a way to "protect" the core of the system for a possible theft from new employees? I do not want to see my codes with competitors in a few months (risk exists).

I thought to limit access via FTP, SVN work, etc.. but thinking about it, I found that the developer has always a way to know the core of the system files (a simple display php directory) or execute a script that will rename the. php. txt to be able to download it...

Encoding the core with Ioncube will be suffisant ? Other solution ?

Artjom B.
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Cartha
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    Have you at all searched SO for an answer? There are many suggestions here, see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/470409/can-i-encrypt-php-source-or-compile-it-so-others-cant-see-it-and-how for example. – jtheman Jan 13 '13 at 19:39

1 Answers1

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This is really a legal and not a programming matter. You should have them sign non-disclosure and non-competition agreements and call it a day - coming up with unneccessarily complex solutions is really unneccessary.

I thought to limit access via FTP, SVN work, etc.. but thinking about it, I found that the developer has always a way to know the core of the system files or execute a script that will rename the. php. txt to be able to download it...

Obviously. Realise that any security invented by a human can be circumvented by another. You still should impose such restrictions - if they do gain access to the application core, you may need to prove that this could only be possible by intentionally circumventing security measures.

To be blunt, always give employees the access they need to do their job, but never more than that.

Michał Gawlas
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  • What about developing an API hosted in onther server for the system's core ?. So then, I think, emplyees can't do anything about that: can't rename files, can't access files/server, can't replace files...they can just code modules. – Cartha Jan 13 '13 at 23:55