HACKER Q&A
📣 kendo123

What could happen if you accidentally leak your company's source code?


One of my colleagues has accidentally shared the source code of the project of one client for a few days on his personal Github. This project is worth several millions. When our company noticed, they dismissed him.

Does anybody know what can happen to him now?

Do you know if the customer sues our company, our company might sue him?

This has been a mistake, our company knows, and the client knows too, but I feel really worried for him.

Has anybody had any experiences with these kind of situations? Should he search for a lawyer?

  👤 architect Accepted Answer ✓
Depends: Did the “project” include lots of JavaScript? If so, there is probably nothing to worry about, the company will be bankrupt/liquidated soon anyway.

If we are talking about actual real software, like for example a missile guidence system written in ada, then there is also nothing to worry about: for normal humans it is utterly worthless and the chinese already have a similar system

👤 mtmail
This is usually covered by business insurance. Company would need to claim gross neglectance or intent to make it personal. If your collegue was a contractor/freelancer (without business insurance) it would be worse. Then again if there was no damage calculated there's to claim to make. To be sure if possible get in writing there was no damage.