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Security report for abs.gov.au

Australian Bureau of Statistics · Government · Australia

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view.

Security score

85/100

Risk levelLow

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

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is Australia's national statistical agency, providing trusted official statistics on a wide range of economic, social, population, and environmental matters. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for accessing statistical data, reports, and releases, targeting government entities, researchers, businesses, and the general public. The ABS holds a strong market position as the authoritative source of official statistics in Australia. Technically, the website is built on the Drupal CMS platform, leveraging modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager and Hotjar for analytics and user experience insights. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, ensuring broad usability and reach. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and publishes a security vulnerability disclosure policy, reflecting a mature security posture. While explicit security headers are not detected, the overall configuration is robust with no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Privacy compliance is strong, with clear privacy and cookie policies aligned with GDPR principles. Overall, the ABS website is a professional, secure, and trustworthy government resource. It effectively balances comprehensive data provision with user experience and security best practices, making it a reliable platform for statistical information dissemination.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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

2 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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 abs.gov.au

This scan found 11 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.

Daily monitoring

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€25per month

  • 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
100
Security headers
80
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
85

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention abs.gov.au, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
9,288
Employees
1
Customers
9,014
Third parties
273
Weak passwords
20%

Latest record dated 2025-07-29 · 40 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for abs.gov.au.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –form.census.abs.gov.au2025-07-29

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

ABS operates as a government agency focused on statistical data collection, analysis, and dissemination. Its business model centers on providing authoritative data to support policy-making, research, and public knowledge. The agency benefits from a strong brand and trust as a government entity, with extensive partnerships and a broad audience base. Revenue streams are government-funded, with no commercial advertising detected. The website supports growth through digital engagement and data accessibility initiatives. Strategically, ABS maintains competitive advantages through official status, comprehensive data coverage, and adherence to high standards of data quality and privacy. The agency's partnership ecosystem includes government bodies and research institutions, enhancing its data relevance and impact.

Security posture

The ABS website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS and a published security vulnerability disclosure policy. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected during analysis. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement in defense-in-depth strategies. Incident response contact information is not prominently displayed, which could be enhanced to improve transparency and responsiveness. Compliance with privacy regulations is evident, and the use of reputable analytics tools is balanced with privacy considerations. Overall, the security culture appears strong, but formalizing additional security headers and incident response details would further strengthen the posture.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a security.txt file at the root domain to facilitate vulnerability reporting and improve transparency.
  3. Enhance visibility and accessibility of incident response contact channels to support timely security communications.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure they do not introduce vulnerabilities or privacy risks.
  5. Develop a long-term security strategy that includes continuous monitoring, penetration testing, and staff training to maintain and improve security maturity.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Description
Australia's national statistical agency providing trusted official statistics on a wide range of economic, social, population and environmental matters.
Key services
Official statistics publication, Data by region, Census data, Economic and social indicators
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal CMS, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, Funnelback Autocompletion, Modaal (modal dialogs), jQuery
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Security vulnerability disclosure policy published
  • No exposed sensitive data detected
  • Use of security-focused scripts and libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via GTM), Hotjar
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar
Marketing tools
Hotjar
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible and functional
  2. Content is comprehensive and professionally presented
  3. Strong government branding and trust signals
  4. Use of modern web technologies and analytics
  5. Privacy and security policies are clearly published
  6. No suspicious or malicious content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The ABS website is built on Drupal CMS, a widely used and robust content management system suitable for government and enterprise use. The site integrates modern analytics and user experience tools such as Google Tag Manager and Hotjar, indicating a focus on data-driven improvements. Performance is moderate, with good mobile optimization and accessibility features implemented. The technical infrastructure appears well-maintained with no major technical debt indicators visible. Opportunities exist to modernize security configurations and enhance incident response capabilities. Overall, the technical foundation supports the agency's mission effectively, balancing functionality, security, and user experience.
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

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