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Security report for adaptcentre.ie

Adapt Centre · Technology · Ireland

High risk. 10 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

42/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The ADAPT Centre is a prominent Irish research centre specializing in AI-driven digital content technology, collaborating with leading academic institutions such as Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University, University College Dublin, and Dublin Institute of Technology. It serves a diverse audience including industry partners, researchers, and the public, focusing on advancing AI research, fostering innovation, and supporting enterprise collaboration. The centre is well-positioned in the technology research sector with strong government funding and industry partnerships. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including Bootstrap, jQuery, and various plugins for enhanced functionality such as Gravity Forms and FacetWP. Hosting is managed by WP Engine with Cloudflare CDN providing content delivery and some security features. While the site is mobile-optimized and SEO-friendly, performance data is missing, and some accessibility features are basic. From a security perspective, the site lacks a valid SSL certificate and does not support HTTPS properly, which is a critical vulnerability. Other security headers and best practices are partially implemented, but the absence of HTTPS and HSTS significantly lowers the security posture. No explicit security or incident response policies are found on the site, and cookie consent mechanisms are missing, indicating partial privacy compliance. Overall, the website is professional and trustworthy in terms of business credibility and content quality but requires urgent improvements in security infrastructure to protect user data and comply with best practices. Strategic recommendations include implementing valid SSL/TLS certificates, enabling modern TLS protocols, and adding privacy and security policies to enhance compliance and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 100 · Critical
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

10 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

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

  2. 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

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

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

Keep watching adaptcentre.ie

This scan found 20 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
0
Security headers
15
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
42

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

ADAPT Centre operates as a government-supported research entity with a clear focus on AI and digital content technology. Its competitive advantage lies in its strong academic partnerships and industry collaborations, backed by significant funding from Science Foundation Ireland. The business model revolves around research excellence, innovation support, and public engagement. Revenue streams likely include government grants, industry partnerships, and collaborative projects. The target customers include academic researchers, industry innovators, startups, and the general public interested in AI. Growth indicators include active news, events, and enterprise partner engagement. The partnership ecosystem is robust, involving multiple universities and technology companies, positioning ADAPT as a leader in AI research in Ireland.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is low due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support, which exposes the site and its users to potential interception and data integrity risks. While Cloudflare is used as a CDN, it does not compensate for the lack of proper TLS configuration. No advanced security policies or incident response mechanisms are publicly documented, indicating limited readiness for security incidents. The site does not implement cookie consent or detailed privacy controls, which may impact GDPR compliance. The use of reputable hosting and CDN providers is a positive factor, but critical vulnerabilities must be addressed to improve the security culture and posture.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and maintain a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable and enforce modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and disable deprecated versions.
  3. Deploy HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload directives.
  4. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply with privacy regulations.
  5. Publish explicit security and incident response policies, including contact channels for security issues.
  6. Regularly audit and update all plugins, themes, and server software to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  7. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience.
  8. Improve performance monitoring and optimization to ensure fast load times.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform with a modern front-end framework (Bootstrap) and uses several plugins such as Gravity Forms for form handling, FacetWP for filtering, and Custom Twitter Feeds for social media integration. Hosting is provided by WP Engine with Cloudflare as a CDN, which offers some security and performance benefits. However, the SSL/TLS configuration is critically lacking, with no valid certificate and no TLS protocols enabled, which is a major technical risk. Performance metrics are missing, indicating a need for better monitoring. The site is mobile-optimized and SEO-friendly with proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Technical debt appears moderate, with opportunities to modernize security and improve performance.
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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