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Security report for activisthandbook.org

Activist Handbook · Non-profit · Netherlands

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Activist Handbook is a non-profit educational platform founded in 2019 and based in the Netherlands, providing over 450 guides and thousands of external resources to support progressive, green, and social activists worldwide. The website offers comprehensive campaigning guides, training resources, and community engagement tools aimed at empowering grassroots movements and preventing activist burnout. It positions itself as a niche leader in activist education with a strong focus on accessibility and inclusivity. Technically, the site is built using modern static site generation technology (VitePress) and hosted on Cloudflare Pages, ensuring fast performance and good mobile optimization. It employs common analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, alongside Google Tag Manager for marketing purposes. The site uses HTTPS with a good SSL configuration but lacks advanced security headers and DNSSEC, which are recommended for enhanced security. From a security perspective, the website demonstrates a moderate security posture with enforced HTTPS and domain status protections but lacks published security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms. No direct contact information is provided, which may limit user trust and support accessibility. Advertising practices are limited to Google AdSense and standard tracking pixels, with basic privacy compliance including a privacy policy and cookie consent banner. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and content-rich, serving its target audience effectively. Strategic recommendations include enabling DNSSEC, implementing security headers, publishing security and incident response policies, and providing clear contact information to improve trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

6 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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';…

  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 activisthandbook.org

This scan found 21 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.

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Full report

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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
75
Security headers
30
Email security
75
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
69

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

Activist Handbook operates as a small non-profit entity focused on activist education and community building. Its market positioning is strong within the activist niche, offering extensive and well-structured content that differentiates it from generic educational sites. The business model centers on providing free educational resources and training to activists globally, supported by advertising revenue and community contributions. The target audience includes progressive, green, and social activists seeking practical campaigning knowledge and mental health support. Growth indicators include a large volume of guides and external resources, active community engagement, and ongoing content development. The partnership ecosystem is not explicitly detailed but includes references to global activist movements and organizations. Operationally, the site leverages modern web technologies and cloud hosting to maintain performance and accessibility.

Security posture

The website maintains a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and domain registration protections in place. However, it lacks several best practices such as security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options), published security policies, and incident response contact information. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. Compliance with GDPR is indicated by the presence of a privacy policy and cookie consent mechanism, but more explicit data retention and protection details are absent. The absence of a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file limits transparency and responsiveness to security issues. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a non-profit educational site but could be improved to enhance trust and resilience.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement essential security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and preparedness.
  4. Add a vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Provide clear and accessible contact information to enhance user trust and support.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Activist Handbook
Description
We write guides for activists. Learn how to become a social activist, plan a political campaign strategy, and start a grassroots movement.
Key services
Campaigning guides, Training resources, Community engagement, Digital tools for activists
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, VitePress, Cloudflare, Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity
Frameworks
VitePress
Platforms
Cloudflare Pages
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status clientDeleteProhibited and clientTransferProhibited
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google AdSense
Tracking pixels
Microsoft Clarity
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a comprehensive resource for activists with extensive guides and community features
  2. Uses modern static site generation technology and Cloudflare hosting for performance and security
  3. Privacy and cookie policies are present with consent mechanisms
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the site
  5. No explicit security or incident response policies published
  6. Advertising and tracking scripts are present but limited to common analytics and ad networks
  7. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern static site generator (VitePress) and is hosted on Cloudflare Pages, providing fast loading times and excellent mobile optimization. The tech stack includes JavaScript frameworks and common analytics and marketing tools such as Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, and Google Tag Manager. The site is well-structured with proper meta tags and SEO optimization, contributing to good search engine visibility. Accessibility features are present but could be further enhanced with ARIA roles and semantic HTML improvements. The absence of security headers and DNSSEC represents technical debt that should be addressed to reduce risk. Overall, the technical infrastructure is robust, performant, and suitable for the site's educational and community-focused mission.
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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