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Security report for acnc.gov.au

Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission · Government · Australia

Partial score · DNS & email only

63/100

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

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) operates as the national regulator for charities in Australia, providing registration, regulation, and compliance oversight. The website serves as a comprehensive resource for charities, donors, volunteers, and the public, offering tools, guidance, and a searchable charity register. The ACNC holds a strong market position as an authoritative government entity in the non-profit sector. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 and GovCMS, leveraging modern web technologies and ensuring mobile optimization and accessibility. Security posture is robust with HTTPS enforcement and standard security headers, though explicit cookie consent and a published security policy are areas for improvement. Overall, the site demonstrates high professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance with privacy standards, making it a reliable source for charity-related information in Australia.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
6of 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

3 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • Critical

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  2. 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 acnc.gov.au

This scan found 12 issues across 5 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
0
Email security
85
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
63

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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

ACNC is positioned as a government regulatory agency with a clear mandate to oversee charities in Australia. Its business model focuses on regulatory compliance, data provision, and public education. The site targets a broad audience including charities, donors, volunteers, and researchers. The presence of extensive resources, reports, and tools indicates a mature digital presence. Partnerships appear limited to government-related domains, reinforcing its official status. The lack of exposed contact emails or phone numbers suggests a preference for controlled communication channels, likely via forms. The organization benefits from strong trust signals including a .gov.au domain, consistent branding, and comprehensive content.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and likely standard security headers in place. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of a dedicated security policy page and incident response contact reduces transparency. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure program was found. The use of Google Tag Manager introduces moderate tracking but is standard for analytics. Overall, the site is secure but could enhance user trust by publishing explicit security and incident response information.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a visible cookie consent banner to comply with privacy regulations and improve user transparency.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact page to enhance trust and preparedness.
  3. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Consider exposing verified contact emails or phone numbers for security and compliance inquiries.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks and improve compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission
Description
The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission is the national regulator of charities. They register and regulate Australia’s charities and provide guidance and support to help charities meet their obligations.
Key services
Charity registration, Charity regulation and compliance, Charity data and reports, Guidance and tools for charities, Public searchable charity register, Raising concerns about charities
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, GovCMS, Google Tag Manager, FontAwesome, Bootstrap (implied by classes), Flickity carousel
Frameworks
Drupal
Platforms
GovCMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure forms with CSRF protection (Drupal standard)
  • No vulnerable libraries detected in scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
Campaign Monitor (createsend.com)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official Australian government charity regulator website
  2. Comprehensive content and resources for charities and public
  3. Modern, accessible, and mobile-optimized design
  4. Use of secure HTTPS and standard security practices
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. Limited WHOIS data due to .au domain privacy policies
  7. No explicit cookie consent mechanism detected
  8. Use of Google Tag Manager for analytics and tracking
  9. Multiple forms for contact and newsletter subscription
  10. No exposed emails or phone numbers in visible content
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 and GovCMS, indicating a modern and government-supported CMS platform. It uses Google Tag Manager for analytics and tracking, and FontAwesome for icons. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features. Performance is moderate, likely due to rich content and interactive elements like carousels. The use of standard web technologies and frameworks suggests maintainability and scalability. Hosting details are not explicit but likely government-managed. No technical debt or deprecated libraries were detected in the provided 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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 79/100Low22 findingsView report
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