Skip to main content

Security report for african-union.org

African Union · Government · N/a

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The African Union website serves as the official digital presence of the African Union Commission, an intergovernmental organization dedicated to promoting peace, security, economic development, and integration across the African continent. The site provides comprehensive information about the organization's structure, programs, events, and resources, targeting member states, citizens, and international partners. It holds a strong market position as the primary continental body for African cooperation and governance. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 7 with a mature technology stack including jQuery and Font Awesome. The site demonstrates good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility, although some modernization opportunities exist. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, but could benefit from enhanced security headers and published security policies. Privacy compliance is partial; while a privacy policy is present, cookie consent mechanisms and GDPR compliance indicators are lacking. Business credibility is high, supported by clear organizational information, official social media presence, and consistent branding. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-maintained. Recommendations include implementing cookie consent for privacy compliance, enhancing security headers, publishing incident response contacts, and updating the CMS to a supported version to maintain security and performance standards.

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. 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';…

  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

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

Keep watching african-union.org

This scan found 22 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. See sample alerts.

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
47
Security headers
50
Email security
85
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
65

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 African Union operates as a continental governmental entity with a mandate to foster unity, peace, and development among African nations. Its business model revolves around policy coordination, program implementation, and advocacy rather than commercial revenue generation. The organization benefits from a broad partnership ecosystem including member states, international organizations, and civil society. The website reflects a mature digital presence aligned with its strategic objectives and audience needs, supporting transparency and engagement. Growth indicators include active event calendars, news updates, and thematic initiatives such as Agenda 2063. The AU's competitive advantage lies in its unique continental mandate and recognized legitimacy. Strategic observations highlight the importance of digital modernization and enhanced privacy compliance to maintain stakeholder trust and operational effectiveness.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security maturity level with enforced HTTPS, absence of exposed sensitive data, and use of standard security practices. However, the lack of advanced security headers such as Content Security Policy and X-Frame-Options represents an area for improvement. No visible vulnerabilities or outdated libraries were detected in the provided content. The absence of published incident response or security contact information limits transparency and readiness perception. Compliance gaps exist in privacy and cookie consent mechanisms, which are critical under GDPR and similar regulations. Overall, the security posture is solid but could be enhanced with additional controls and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a comprehensive cookie consent mechanism to comply with GDPR and enhance user privacy transparency.
  2. Add and enforce security headers including Content Security Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to mitigate common web attacks.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  4. Upgrade Drupal core and modules to supported versions to reduce security risks and improve performance.
  5. Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing to proactively identify and remediate vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
African Union Commission
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
African Union
Description
The African Union is a continental union consisting of 55 member states promoting Africa’s growth, economic development, peace, security, and integration through cooperation and citizen inclusion.
Key services
Policy coordination, Peace and security initiatives, Economic development programs, Integration and cooperation facilitation, Information dissemination and advocacy
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 7, jQuery 1.10.2, Font Awesome 4.4.0, AdvAgg (Drupal aggregation module), Lightbox2, Owl Carousel
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a well-established official portal for the African Union.
  2. Content is comprehensive, multilingual, and professionally maintained.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  4. Security posture is good but can be improved with additional headers and policies.
  5. Lack of explicit cookie consent and privacy compliance mechanisms noted.
  6. No visible vulnerability disclosure or incident response information.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 7, a widely used but aging CMS platform, supplemented by jQuery 1.10.2 and Font Awesome 4.4.0. The site uses AdvAgg for asset aggregation and Lightbox2 for media display. Performance is moderate with room for optimization, especially considering the Drupal 7 base. Mobile optimization and accessibility are good, supported by responsive design and ARIA landmarks. SEO is well addressed with canonical links and meta tags. Hosting provider details are not explicit but the site uses HTTPS with a valid SSL certificate. Technical debt is present due to the older CMS version, suggesting modernization opportunities to improve security and maintainability.
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 african-union.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 african-union.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.