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Security report for across-alliance.eu

Across · Education · N/a

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Email security and 2 other checks.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Across is a European alliance of 10 universities spanning 10 countries, focused on fostering cross-border cooperation in higher education. The alliance promotes academic excellence and regional engagement through joint education programs, research, innovation, and digital initiatives such as the eCampus platform. The website reflects a professional and well-structured digital presence consistent with its educational mission. Technically, the site is built on WordPress using modern plugins and frameworks, with good SEO and mobile optimization. Security posture is strong with HTTPS and security headers, though some privacy compliance aspects like cookie consent could be improved. Overall, the domain appears legitimate with privacy-protected WHOIS data typical for European domains. The site is accessible without WAF or blocking mechanisms, indicating a stable and trustworthy online presence.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
33/ 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

7 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.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  2. 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

  3. 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';…

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

Keep watching across-alliance.eu

This scan found 23 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
72
Security headers
50
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
33
Average
65

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 Across alliance occupies a niche position in the European higher education sector, targeting students, staff, and regional stakeholders interested in cross-border academic collaboration. Its business model is non-profit and focused on educational and research initiatives. The alliance leverages partnerships among universities to provide unique learning pathways and mobility opportunities. The website's content and social media presence support its credibility and outreach efforts. While revenue streams are not explicit, the alliance likely benefits from EU funding and institutional support. The partnership ecosystem is strong, with clear emphasis on cooperation and innovation. Strategic observations include the need to enhance privacy compliance and publish more detailed policies to align with evolving regulations.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, presence of key security headers, and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Use of honeypot plugins for forms indicates attention to spam and abuse prevention. However, the absence of a published security policy, incident response plan, or vulnerability disclosure mechanism suggests room for improvement in transparency and readiness. GDPR compliance is partially evidenced by a comprehensive privacy policy, but lack of cookie consent mechanisms is a gap. Overall, the site is secure for its purpose but should enhance compliance and incident readiness to strengthen trust.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a visible cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and improve user privacy transparency.
  2. Publish a clear terms of service page outlining user rights and responsibilities.
  3. Develop and publish a security policy and incident response plan to enhance transparency and preparedness.
  4. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Improve website accessibility features to broaden usability and compliance with standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Across
Description
Across is an alliance of 10 universities across Europe dedicated to fostering cross-border cooperation, promoting academic excellence, and enriching the educational landscape of Europe.
Key services
Joint education programs, Research & innovation, Regional engagement, Digital eCampus platform, Seasonal schools, Seed funding, Digital mobility guide
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Elementor, Jet Engine, EventON plugin, WP Rocket, jQuery
Frameworks
Elementor
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Security headers present
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected
  • Secure forms (honeypot plugin used)

Analytics and tracking

Services
WP Statistics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Rank Math SEO, WP Rocket, GTranslate
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenge
  2. Content is rich, well-structured, and professionally presented
  3. Strong focus on European cross-border higher education collaboration
  4. Social media presence on major platforms
  5. No exposed sensitive data or security issues detected
  6. WHOIS data is privacy protected and not publicly available
  7. No explicit cookie consent mechanism detected
  8. No terms of service or security policy pages found
  9. Use of modern WordPress plugins and SEO tools
  10. No suspicious or malicious external links found
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress with Elementor and Jet Engine plugins, indicating a modern and flexible CMS infrastructure. Performance is moderate with caching via WP Rocket and lazy loading of images. SEO is enhanced by Rank Math plugin and structured data in JSON-LD format. The site is mobile optimized and uses standard web technologies including jQuery. No outdated or vulnerable libraries were detected. Hosting provider details are not explicit. Technical risks are low but could be further mitigated by regular security audits and updates.
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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