Privacy/Security

Misc

Packages

{askpass} - Password Entry Utilities for R, Git, and SSH
- Cross-platform utilities for prompting the user for credentials or a passphrase, for example to authenticate with a server or read a protected key.
- Includes native programs for MacOS and Windows, hence no ‘tcltk’ is required.
- Password entry can be invoked in two different ways:
  - Directly from R via the askpass() function
  - Indirectly as password-entry back-end for ‘ssh-agent’ or ‘git-credential’ via the SSH_ASKPASS and GIT_ASKPASS environment variables.
    - The user can be prompted for credentials or a passphrase if needed when R calls out to git or ssh.
{deident} (JOSS) - A framework for the replicable removal of personally identifiable data (PID) in data sets.
{diffpriv} - Implements the formal framework of differential privacy: differentially-private mechanisms can safely release to untrusted third parties: statistics computed, models fit, or arbitrary structures derived on privacy-sensitive data.
{encryptr} - Encrypt and decrypt data frame or tibble columns using the strong RSA public/private keys
{encryptedRmd} - Encrypt Html Reports Using ‘Libsodium’
{GRANDpriv} - Implements a GRAND (Graph Release with Assured Node Differential) method for privatizing network data using differential privacy
{{metasyn}} - For generating synthetic tabular data with a focus on privacy
{randomForestSRC} - Fast Unified Random Forests for Survival, Regression, and Classification (RF-SRC)
- Anonymous random forests for data privacy
{rmonocypher} - Simple encryption of R objects using a strong modern technique.
{sdcmicro} (CRAN)- For the generation of anonymized (micro)data, i.e. for the creation of public- and scientific-use files.
{simPop} (Vignette) - Tools and methods to simulate populations for surveys based on auxiliary data. The tools include model-based methods, calibration and combinatorial optimization algorithms
{staticryptR} - Encrypt HTML Files Using staticrypt
{tangles} - Anonymisation of Spatial Point Patterns and Grids
{trustmebro} - Provides functions that make it easy to inspect various subject-generated ID codes (SGIC) for plausibility.
- Helps with inspecting other common identifiers, ensuring that your data stays clean and reliable. Beyond plausibility checks, trustmebro offers a few tools for smooth data import and convenient recoding.
- SGIC - Often consists of a set of stable participant characteristics that enable a respondent’s answers to be matched across multiple points in time, while preserving participant anonymity (i.e., no personal identifiers such as name, date of birth, or address are collected) (source)
{vvbitwarden} - Provides functions to **securely retrieve secrets from a ‘Bitwarden** Secrets Manager’ vault using the ‘Bitwarden CLI’, enabling secret and configuration management within R packages and workflows{
{xxhashlite} - Very fast hash functions using xxHash

Also see Simulation, Data
Tools
- rclone - A command-line program to manage files on cloud storage. It is a feature-rich alternative to cloud vendors’ web storage interfaces.
  - Over 70 cloud storage products support rclone including S3 object stores, business & consumer file storage services, as well as standard transfer protocols.
  - Able to add the encryption to files and the keys will be on your local device
- staticrypt - Password protect a static HTML page, decrypted in-browser in JS with no dependency. No server logic needed. (Useful for HTML reports) (Also see R package)
  - hrbrmstr: “Please use long,”complex” *passphrases* for this tool/docs. These documents are susceptible to brute-force attacks, so you gotta make it hard for the attacker. It uses solid encryption practices (AES-256 encryption; PBKDF2 for password hashing w/decent iterations); but — unlike public/private key-based message exchanges — once the password leaks, there’s no access revocation”
- VeraCrypt - Encrypt files before cloud upload for extra security
  - Does not encrypt single files directly—instead, it creates an encrypted volume (like a virtual disk), and you can store any files inside that volume.
  - Offers strong encryption (AES, Serpent, Twofish, etc.)
  - For cloud storage, you’d create and manage an encrypted container locally, and then upload that container to the cloud.
  - Cloud Workflow (ChatGPT)
    1. Create a VeraCrypt Encrypted Container
      - Open VeraCrypt and click Create Volume.
      - Select “Create an encrypted file container”.
      - Choose “Standard VeraCrypt volume”.
      - Set a file name and location for your container (e.g., secure_docs.vc).
      - Choose your preferred encryption algorithm (e.g., AES).
      - Specify the size of the volume (e.g., 500 MB).
      - Create a strong password.
      - Choose a file system (e.g., FAT or exFAT for compatibility) and format the volume.
    2. Mount the VeraCrypt Volume and Add Files
      - Open VeraCrypt and select an unused drive letter (e.g., Z:).
      - Mount your encrypted volume file (e.g., secure_docs.vc).
      - Copy or move your sensitive files (e.g., PDFs) into the mounted drive.
      - Dismount the volume when done — this re-locks the encryption.
    3. Upload the Encrypted Container to the Cloud
      - Upload the .vc file to a cloud service like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or a remote server via SFTP/rsync.
      - Alternatively, store the .vc file as a binary object (BLOB) in a database.
      - Note: The entire container is encrypted. No need to encrypt files individually.
    4. Access or Update the Files Later
      - Download the .vc file from your cloud storage or database.
      - Mount the volume with VeraCrypt using your password.
      - View, update, or add new files as needed.
      - Dismount the volume and re-upload if you made changes.

Hashing

{sodium} - Uses a slow hashing algorithm that is specifically designed to protect stored passwords from brute-force attacks. More on this here
{digest}
- Hash Function
- Apply Hash Function to PII Fields

Misc

Tags

Hashing