Skip to main content

Security report for actionaid.org

ActionAid International · Non-profit · N/a

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

ActionAid International is a well-established global non-profit federation dedicated to eradicating poverty and injustice through humanitarian aid, advocacy, and development programs. The organization operates in multiple countries worldwide, focusing on key themes such as women's rights, climate justice, emergencies, and economic and political issues. Their website reflects a professional and consistent brand image, providing comprehensive information about their mission, activities, and resources. The presence of multiple country-specific domains underscores their global footprint and operational scale. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10, leveraging modern analytics tools like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Hotjar for user behavior insights. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, with a moderate performance profile. Hosting and DNS services utilize Cloudflare, enhancing availability and resilience. Privacy and cookie compliance are well implemented, including user consent mechanisms aligned with GDPR requirements. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and employs domain transfer protection. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, and no explicit security headers were detected in the HTML content, representing areas for improvement. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response contacts are publicly available, which could be enhanced to improve transparency and trust. Overall, the security posture is solid but could benefit from additional hardening and disclosure practices. The overall risk assessment is low, with no indications of malicious content or suspicious activity. The site is trustworthy, professionally maintained, and compliant with privacy regulations. Strategic recommendations include enabling DNSSEC, publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy, adding security headers, and providing clear incident response contacts to further strengthen security and compliance posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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

4 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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

  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 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 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 actionaid.org

This scan found 24 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
62
Security headers
40
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
70

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

ActionAid International holds a strong position in the global non-profit sector, leveraging a federated model with country-specific operations. Their competitive advantage lies in their long history, broad geographic reach, and focus on intersectional issues such as women's rights and climate justice. The business model is donation and grant-funded, supported by advocacy and public engagement. Their target audience includes donors, activists, policymakers, and affected communities. Growth indicators include active news and publication updates and a robust social media presence. The partnership ecosystem is implied through multiple country domains and collaborative initiatives. Operationally, the organization demonstrates maturity with clear governance and transparency through published policies and funding information.

Security posture

The security maturity of ActionAid International's website is moderate to high. HTTPS is enforced, and domain registration protections are in place. The use of reputable analytics and tag management tools is balanced with user consent mechanisms, reflecting privacy awareness. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers like CSP or HSTS indicates room for improvement. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. The lack of a public vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file and incident response contacts suggests limited transparency in security incident handling. Overall, the security culture appears responsible but could be enhanced by adopting additional best practices and public disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve DNS security.
  2. Implement and verify HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Provide explicit incident response contact information, including security or abuse email addresses, to improve transparency and responsiveness.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to minimize privacy risks and ensure compliance with evolving regulations.

Contact details published on the site

Legal name
Vereniging ActionAid International
Registration number
27264198
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
ActionAid International
Description
ActionAid is a global federation working for a world free from poverty and injustice.
Key services
Humanitarian aid, Advocacy, Publications and research, Emergency response, Women’s rights promotion, Climate and land rights activism
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, Cloudflare DNS
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Hotjar
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
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 with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is rich, relevant, and professionally presented.
  3. Strong focus on privacy and cookie compliance with user consent mechanisms.
  4. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found; contact is via web form.
  5. Multiple country-specific subdomains indicate a global presence.
  6. Use of modern analytics and tracking tools with consent banners.
  7. No visible security headers detected in HTML content; recommend verification.
  8. No terms of service page explicitly found.
  9. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
  10. No explicit incident response or abuse contact emails found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and widely supported CMS platform, indicating a current technology stack. It uses Cloudflare for DNS, enhancing resilience and performance. The site integrates Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Hotjar for analytics and user behavior tracking, with appropriate cookie consent mechanisms in place. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with a clear navigation structure and professional design. Performance is moderate, likely influenced by the use of multiple external scripts. No critical technical debt or outdated technologies were detected. Opportunities exist to improve security headers and DNS security to reduce technical risks.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with actionaid.org. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review actionaid.org.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.