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Security report for acwd.org

Alameda County Water District · Government · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

64/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Alameda County Water District is a government entity providing water services to residents and businesses in Alameda County, California. The website serves as an official portal offering information on water quality, conservation, billing, emergency contacts, and community engagement. It maintains a professional and consistent brand presence with clear navigation and multiple customer service resources. The site targets local customers and stakeholders interested in water services and conservation efforts. From a technical perspective, the website employs a modern technology stack including jQuery, AlpineJS, Google Analytics, and Microsoft Application Insights, hosted on a CivicPlus CMS platform. The site is mobile optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices and performance. Analytics and tracking are implemented moderately, with event tracking and Google Tag Manager integration. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and anti-forgery tokens on forms. However, explicit security headers and a published security policy or incident response contacts are absent. Privacy compliance is basic, with no clear cookie consent mechanism or GDPR-specific disclosures. WHOIS data is unavailable due to malformed response, limiting domain trust verification. Overall, the website is a trustworthy and professional government resource with room for improvement in privacy compliance and security transparency. Strategic recommendations include implementing security headers, publishing a security policy, adding cookie consent, and establishing a vulnerability disclosure process.

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

7 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. 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"

  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

    • 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

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

Keep watching acwd.org

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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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
57
Security headers
40
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
64

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 Alameda County Water District operates as a local government water utility, serving a medium-sized customer base in Alameda County, CA. Its business model focuses on providing essential water services, including supply, quality assurance, conservation programs, and customer account management. The district maintains a strong community presence through news updates, events, and social media engagement. The website reflects a stable market position as a trusted public service provider with no evident commercial revenue streams beyond utility fees. The partnership ecosystem includes social media platforms and possibly local government entities. Growth indicators are not explicit but the site supports customer engagement and transparency. The district's competitive advantage lies in its official status, comprehensive service offerings, and community outreach. The website supports operational efficiency by providing online bill payment, service start/stop, and educational resources. Strategic observations suggest a focus on digital modernization and customer service enhancement.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level. HTTPS is enforced, and anti-forgery tokens are implemented to protect form submissions. The use of Microsoft Application Insights indicates active telemetry and monitoring. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy reduces defense-in-depth. No published security policy or incident response contact information is found, which limits transparency and readiness communication. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. The site uses third-party scripts for analytics and fonts, which should be regularly audited. Privacy compliance is minimal, lacking cookie consent banners or GDPR-specific disclosures. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not evident. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a government informational site but could be enhanced with better policy publication and header implementation.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Add a cookie consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations such as GDPR.
  4. Establish and publicize a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts to mitigate supply chain risks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Alameda County Water District
Description
Alameda County Water District provides water services including water quality, conservation, and customer account management to the Alameda County area in California.
Key services
Water service start and stop, Bill payment and account management, Water quality information, Water conservation and rebates, Emergency preparedness
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.7.1, jQuery UI 1.14.1, AlpineJS 3.14.1, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics (GA4), Microsoft Application Insights, CivicPlus CMS
Frameworks
jQuery, AlpineJS
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Anti-forgery token implemented in forms
  • Use of Microsoft Application Insights for telemetry
  • Google Tag Manager for analytics

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (GA4), Microsoft Application Insights
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ads
Tracking pixels
Microsoft Application Insights
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official government water district website for Alameda County, CA
  2. Comprehensive water service information and customer resources
  3. Multiple social media channels linked
  4. Use of modern web technologies and analytics
  5. No visible security or privacy policy pages explicitly labeled
  6. WHOIS data unavailable, limiting domain trust verification
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the CivicPlus CMS platform, leveraging jQuery, jQuery UI, and AlpineJS for frontend interactivity. It integrates Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for marketing and user behavior tracking, alongside Microsoft Application Insights for telemetry. The site uses responsive design techniques and includes accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA roles. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts and deferred execution where possible. The site lacks explicit hosting provider information but uses standard web technologies and CDNs for fonts and scripts. Technical risks include reliance on multiple third-party scripts and incomplete security header implementation.
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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