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Security report for acmrs.org

ACMRS Press · Education · United States

Medium risk. 11 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

54/100

Risk levelMedium

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

ACMRS Press is an academic publishing division affiliated with the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Arizona State University. It specializes in publishing scholarly works in premodern studies, emphasizing open access to break down traditional barriers in academic publishing. The website presents a professional and consistent brand image, targeting academics, researchers, and educators in medieval and renaissance studies. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with modern plugins and uses CDN services for content delivery. SEO and mobile optimization are well implemented, though accessibility is basic. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS and domain locking but lacks DNSSEC and security headers. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the site is trustworthy and functional but could improve in privacy and security transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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

11 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 Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

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

Keep watching acmrs.org

This scan found 27 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

Recommended

€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
47
Security headers
25
Email security
40
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
54

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 business operates in a niche academic publishing market with a focus on open access, which positions it competitively among university presses and scholarly publishers. Its partnership with ASU and use of external platforms for open access catalog and sales indicate a collaborative ecosystem. The business model combines open access digital content with print sales, targeting a specialized academic audience. Growth potential lies in expanding open access offerings and enhancing author support resources. The lack of direct contact information on the homepage suggests a focus on institutional rather than direct consumer engagement.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and domain registration protections in place. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers reduces its defense-in-depth posture. No incident response or security policies are published, and no dedicated security contact channels are provided. The use of third-party analytics and marketing tools introduces moderate tracking but no evident vulnerabilities. Compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations is not clearly addressed, representing a compliance gap. Overall, the security posture is functional but could benefit from enhanced transparency and technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve domain security.
  2. Implement standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  3. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements and implement a cookie consent mechanism.
  4. Add explicit security and incident response policies on the website, including dedicated contact channels for security issues.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to improve usability for all users and comply with accessibility standards.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
ACMRS Press
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
ACMRS Press
Description
ACMRS Press is the publications division of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. They publish forward-looking, theoretically expansive, and vanguard research in premodern studies, aiming to break down traditional barriers to scholarly knowledge by making their catalog open access and supporting authors through a transparent publishing process.
Key services
Publishing scholarly books and journals, Providing open access to titles, Supporting authors with publishing resources
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.8.2, Yoast SEO plugin, jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Supadu plugin, BB Plugin, FontAwesome 5.15.4, Vimeo Player API, Cloudfront CDN
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited and other EPP locks

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
ShareThis
Marketing tools
ShareThis
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is focused on academic publishing in medieval and renaissance studies.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the homepage or linked menus.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers visible on the homepage content.
  5. Use of modern web technologies and SEO best practices.
  6. No suspicious or malicious domains linked.
  7. Security posture is adequate but could be improved with DNSSEC and security headers.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern WordPress CMS with up-to-date plugins including Yoast SEO for search optimization and Supadu for publishing management. It leverages CDN services (Cloudfront) for media delivery and integrates Google Tag Manager and Analytics for user tracking. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and uses standard web fonts and icons (FontAwesome). Performance is moderate with some potential for optimization. The technical stack is well suited for academic publishing but could improve in security configurations and privacy compliance. No critical technical debt or vulnerabilities were detected in the HTML content.
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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