Fwiw, it's not your responsibility to maintain a secure computing environment (assuming you're a researcher). If you, personally, have to vet the whole system and all the software you use for security, then they have none.

A competent system administrator with a knowledge of system security can easily configure a host so that when you SSH in, files you create are not given world-readable permissions by default. They can add other lock-down mechanisms that isolates all the users' files entirely. And they can simply disable all world-writeable folders like /tmp/.

So in case anyone gives you (or anyone else) a load of crap about using insecure software, ask them why their systems are so insecure.