ActiveState Empowers Data Scientists with R Language Support, Strengthening Leadership in Open Source Security Posture Management

Company extends its secure, curated open source catalog to secure the data science software supply chain through Intelligent Remediation

VANCOUVER, BC, April 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ActiveState, the Open Source Security Posture Management (OSPM) platform, today announced the strategic expansion of its platform to include comprehensive support for the R programming language. This significant update, with more than 22,000 packages, extends ActiveState's proven OSPM capabilities to data science professionals, empowering them to leverage the full potential of R with the confidence that their software dependencies are continuously monitored, analyzed, and secured. This move strategically complements ActiveState's existing robust support for Python, a definitive leader in the data science domain, creating a powerful synergy that addresses the core language requirements of this vital sector.

In the data-driven realm of modern innovation, open source software (OSS) has become a fundamental pillar, particularly within the rapidly evolving fields of data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Languages like R, a mature and powerful language specifically designed for statistical computing and analysis, have become indispensable tools for researchers, analysts, and enterprises leveraging sophisticated data analysis. This increasing reliance on OSS in critical data science workflows brings forth a crucial imperative: the need for robust security and effective vulnerability management across the software supply chain.

ActiveState's platform offers unparalleled visibility into the open source landscape through its proprietary dependency intelligence, which encompasses over 40 million unique artifacts. This expansive library allows ActiveState to provide a comprehensive understanding of both direct and transitive dependencies, going beyond manual tools to identify vulnerabilities across the entire software supply chain.

Pete Garcin, Senior Director of Product at ActiveState, stated, "Extending our intelligent remediation capabilities to incorporate support for the R language marks a vital advancement in our dedication to safeguarding the entire open source ecosystem. Similar to how we empower developers with secure open source environments, we are now providing developers and data scientists with the assurance to fully utilize the power of R, confident that their software dependencies are continuously monitored, analyzed, and secured. Our strategy transcends simply adding another language. We are establishing a unified and dependable remediation pathway that specifically caters to the distinct security demands of the data science community."

ActiveState's approach goes beyond mere language compatibility. Recognizing the widespread use of R in data science, the company's platform already incorporates a substantial catalog of R components. The formal announcement of R language support signifies a deeper integration, ensuring that data science workflows benefit from the same level of intelligent vulnerability analysis, proactive breaking change detection, and precision remediation that ActiveState's users in application development have come to expect. This holistic approach ensures that data scientists can focus on extracting valuable insights from data, rather than being burdened by the complexities and risks associated with unmanaged open source dependencies.

This strategic expansion directly reinforces ActiveState's core value proposition: delivering "intelligent remediation" to secure the software supply chain across all critical domains, including data science.
By strategically incorporating R support alongside its existing capabilities, ActiveState is poised to further solidify its position as a leader in the open source security posture management space. ActiveState continues to broaden its industry-leading coverage of open source software, with R marking the latest significant addition to our expanding catalog of secure components. This expansion is a key step in ActiveState's strategy to provide extensive coverage across a multitude of ecosystems, addressing the evolving needs of modern software development and data science.

Discover how ActiveState's Open Source Security Posture Management platform with R language support can secure your data science workflows and empower your teams to innovate with confidence. Visit our Supported Languages page, request a demo, or learn more about our comprehensive open source security solutions.

About ActiveState
ActiveState enables DevOps, InfoSec, and Development teams to improve their security posture while simultaneously increasing productivity and innovation to deliver secure applications faster.

We are the only solution in the market today that offers Intelligent Remediation, which identifies which vulnerabilities to prioritize, assesses the impact of updates causing breaking changes, prioritizes what to fix first, securely builds open source packages from source, and facilitates the build and deploy process to get fixes into production quickly and easily.

All from the trusted partner that pioneered and continues to lead enterprise adoption and use of open source software.

SOURCE ActiveState