CODEWITHSUNDEEP
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Jay Basi
Jay Basi

Reputation: 1

R - Removing all ability to connect to the internet

I have been trying to make the case to have R installed at my place of employment. However, the IT department has come back with a risk assessment that R has potential risks. After much debating (and brick-head-interaction), I suggested removing all internet connectivity from R.

I know (hope?) in principle that it can be done, since 'base' R is open source and can be edited. My questions are:

  1. How do I disable all internet possibility from 'base' R by editing the source code?
  2. Once 1. is done, will the lack of internet flow on to packages? That is, will all internet be cut off from any package, no matter what the package is trying to do?

(Sorry, I'm a stats/maths guy, not so much a 'deep' programming dude.)

Upvotes: 0

Views: 583

Answers (1)

user13653858
user13653858

Reputation:

Wow, what a very strict work condition! Yeah, data analysis can be sometimes very dangerous. :-)

Generaly speaking it's possible to use R without internet connection, you just have to download the packages and install them from source (.zip/.tar.gz files).

But adjusting R source code would be unnecessary effort. I think that your IT department should be able to block access to internet connection in the firewall settings for R apps (R, RGui and/or RStudio), which takes only few minutes to set up. E.g. in Windows they can use Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security to block outbound connections from R exe files:

Windows Defender

If they use another firewall or network rules, they should be able to set it up correctly and quickly as well.

Upvotes: 2

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