[R] security using R at work

[Rich Shepard]

On Wed, 8 Aug 2018, Laurence Clark wrote:

> I want to download R and use it for work purposes. I hope to use it to
> analyse very sensitive data from our clients.

Laurence,

   Good choice.

> My question is:
>
> If I install R on my work network computer, will the data ever leave our
> network? I need to know if the data goes anywhere other than our network,
> because this could compromise it's security. Is there is any chance the
> data could go to a server owned by 'R' or anything else that's not
> immediately obvious, but constitutes the data leaving our network?

   Your sensitive data are no more, and no less, secure than any other data
on your desktop computer or the company's network. Assuming company
personnel and payroll data are on your local network, and proposals written
with Microsoft's tools are happily created by employees, then your client
data are equally secure (or at risk) regardless of the application used on
them. This is a network security issue, not an R issue.

Rich