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Security report for aealliance.org

Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance · Healthcare · United States

Partial score · DNS & email only

54/100

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

The Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance is a specialized non-profit organization dedicated to supporting patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and researchers involved with autoimmune encephalitis. Their mission focuses on collaborative research, clinical care, education, and community support to find a cure and improve patient outcomes. The website reflects a mature organization with a clear market position in the healthcare non-profit sector, offering key services such as patient support, professional resources, research grants, and community engagement. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including Bootstrap, jQuery, and Gravity Forms. It employs Google Analytics and Tag Manager for tracking and uses Google reCAPTCHA to secure forms. The site is mobile-optimized with good SEO practices and structured data for enhanced search visibility. Hosting and domain registration are stable and consistent with the organization's history. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS with a valid SSL configuration and implements reCAPTCHA on forms to prevent abuse. However, it lacks security headers and DNSSEC, and does not publish a security policy or incident response contacts. Privacy compliance is limited as no privacy or cookie policies were found, which is a notable gap for GDPR and other regulations. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and content-rich, but could improve its privacy and security posture to enhance compliance and user trust. Strategic improvements in security headers, privacy disclosures, and incident response transparency are recommended to strengthen the organization's digital maturity and risk management.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
Checks completed
6of 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

5 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.

    • Critical

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  2. 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

    • 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google APIs

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching aealliance.org

This scan found 15 issues across 5 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

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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
0
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
54

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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 AE Alliance operates in a niche healthcare non-profit market focused on autoimmune encephalitis. Its competitive advantage lies in its specialized focus, collaborative approach to research, and comprehensive patient and professional support services. Revenue streams likely include donations and grants, facilitated through a partner payment processor (aealliance.z2systems.com). The organization targets patients, caregivers, clinicians, and researchers, indicating a broad but focused audience. Growth indicators include active social media engagement and educational events. The partnership ecosystem includes payment processing and possibly research networks. The website's professional presentation and consistent branding support its credibility and market presence.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is moderate. The use of HTTPS and reCAPTCHA are positive controls, but the absence of security headers and DNSSEC reduces the overall security posture. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. Compliance gaps exist due to missing privacy and cookie policies, and no visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms. The organization should enhance its security culture by publishing clear policies, enabling DNSSEC, and implementing recommended HTTP security headers to mitigate risks and improve trust.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with GDPR compliance details.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection.
  3. Enable DNSSEC for the domain to improve DNS security.
  4. Publish a security policy and incident response contact information, including a security.txt file.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to meet compliance standards and improve user experience.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
AEA, Inc.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance
Description
The AE Alliance strives to find a cure for autoimmune encephalitis through multi-disciplinary, collaborative research and clinical care.
Key services
Patient support and education, Professional resources and clinician network, Research grants and facilitation, Community engagement and events
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Bootstrap, jQuery, Gravity Forms, Google reCAPTCHA, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, AOS (Animate On Scroll), Owl Carousel, ScrollMagic
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA on forms
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Content is comprehensive and targeted to patients, caregivers, professionals, and researchers.
  3. No explicit privacy or cookie policy pages found on the homepage or footer.
  4. Contact information is clearly provided including email and physical address.
  5. Use of multiple modern web technologies and analytics tools.
  6. No visible security headers detected; DNSSEC not enabled.
  7. Domain registration is stable and consistent with business claims.
  8. No signs of WAF or content blocking.
  9. Social media presence is active across major platforms.
Technical notes

Notes

The website infrastructure is based on WordPress CMS with a modern front-end framework (Bootstrap) and several JavaScript libraries for UI enhancements and analytics. Performance is moderate with room for optimization. The site is mobile responsive and SEO optimized with structured data and meta tags. Technical debt appears low, but security improvements are needed. The hosting provider is inferred as NameCheap, consistent with the registrar data. The use of Gravity Forms and Google services indicates reliance on third-party tools for form handling and analytics, which is standard but requires careful privacy management.
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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