[aklug] Linux security in a Windows environment

[Mark Moon]

As I previously posted, I'm pushing some folks within SOA to get some 
kind of Linux environment in which to run R and be more productive.  IT 
is trying hard to get me to use R within Windows, which I am resisting.  
But for whatever potential solution I mention I always get the same 
general pushback which is: who is going to support the Linux environment 
so that it has robust security and patches are up to date thereby not a 
threat to our network?  Then they ask, are YOU a Linux administrator???  
And then say, we didn't think so!  I'd like to educate myself as to what 
might be the security issues involved and what are best practices to 
manage them.  I was hoping someone in the group could point me in the 
right direction on this.

To be clear, I started on Linux with Ubuntu probably 12 yeas ago, then 
pretty quickly moved to Debian.  Until two weeks ago, used almost no 
Windows for probably 10 years.  Have played a little bit with Arch and a 
very compact distribution (Slacko?).  I have tried to update my system 
about every couple of weeks and have not had any security issue that I'm 
aware of.

Are there difficult/significant security issues running a Linux 
environment:

   - on a remote server

   - on a Linux VM on Windows

   - in a Windows Subsystem

   - in a Windows Container

Apologies for not knowing this stuff which is probably obvious to most 
but would very much appreciate any thought on how to gain a better 
understanding of these issues and accepted ways to manage them.

Many thanks!

Mark



  
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Mark Moon
805.657.9504