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Security report for a11yproject.com

The Accessibility Project · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

The A11Y Project is a well-established community-driven initiative focused on making digital accessibility easier through educational resources, checklists, workshops, and community engagement. The website serves as a hub for accessibility professionals, developers, and designers seeking to improve web accessibility standards. It holds a recognized position within the accessibility community, emphasizing open collaboration and resource sharing. Technically, the website is built using modern static site generation technology (Eleventy) and hosted on Netlify, ensuring fast performance and excellent mobile optimization. The site employs HTTPS and service workers for offline support, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. However, some security best practices such as explicit security headers and cookie consent mechanisms are not evident. From a security perspective, the site demonstrates a solid posture with no visible vulnerabilities or sensitive data exposure. The absence of WHOIS data for the domain is a notable anomaly, which slightly reduces trustworthiness but does not detract from the professional presentation and community trust evident on the site. Privacy compliance is good, with a comprehensive privacy policy present, though cookie consent is lacking. Overall, the site presents low risk with strong content quality and technical implementation. Strategic improvements in security headers, cookie consent, and transparency around incident response would further enhance trust and compliance.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of a11yproject.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  2. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…
  3. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching a11yproject.com

This scan found 25 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
52
Security headers
40
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
63

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The A11Y Project operates as a small, non-profit community resource within the technology and education sectors, targeting web developers, designers, and accessibility advocates. Its business model centers on community engagement, sponsorships, and open-source contributions rather than direct revenue generation. The project benefits from partnerships with accessibility tool providers and educational platforms, enhancing its ecosystem. Its longevity since 2013 and consistent content quality indicate stable growth and influence in the accessibility domain. The absence of direct contact information suggests a decentralized or volunteer-driven organizational structure.

Security posture

The website maintains a good security posture with enforced HTTPS, no visible sensitive data leaks, and use of modern web technologies. However, the lack of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options represents an area for improvement. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is provided, which could hinder timely reporting and mitigation of security issues. Privacy compliance is supported by a comprehensive privacy policy, but the absence of cookie consent mechanisms may pose compliance risks under certain regulations. Overall, the security maturity is solid but could benefit from enhanced transparency and technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to strengthen defense-in-depth.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and improve user transparency.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Provide clear incident response contact information to improve security communication and trust.
  5. Consider verifying and publishing WHOIS data or domain registration details to enhance legitimacy and trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Accessibility Project
Description
The A11Y Project is a community-driven effort to make digital accessibility easier.
Key services
Educational posts and articles, Accessibility checklists, Workshops and videos, Community spotlights, Resource aggregation
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, SVG, Service Workers
Frameworks
Eleventy (Static Site Generator)
Platforms
Netlify (hosting)
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Service worker for offline support
  • No visible sensitive data exposure
  • No forms collecting sensitive data

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible and not blocked by WAF or security mechanisms.
  2. Content is focused on digital accessibility education and community support.
  3. No forms or data collection fields detected on the homepage.
  4. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found on the homepage.
  5. Social media links include Twitter and Mastodon accounts.
  6. No cookie consent banner or explicit cookie policy detected.
  7. No terms of service page linked from homepage.
  8. Website uses HTTPS and modern static site technologies.
  9. No visible security headers detected in provided data.
  10. WHOIS data is missing or unavailable, which is unusual.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built as a static site using Eleventy, leveraging modern web standards including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript with SVG graphics and service workers for offline capabilities. Hosting on Netlify provides reliable performance and scalability. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and fast loading times. SEO is supported through proper meta tags and Open Graph data. No CMS or dynamic backend is detected, reducing attack surface but limiting interactive features. The absence of explicit security headers and cookie consent mechanisms are technical gaps. Overall, the technical infrastructure is modern, performant, and well-suited for the site's educational and community focus.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 63/100Medium35 findingsView report
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