Skip to main content

Security report for afrisig.org

Association for Progressive Communications · Technology · South Africa

Partial score · DNS & email only

44/100

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

The African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG) is a well-established non-profit educational initiative focused on internet governance and digital policy in Africa. Convened by the Association for Progressive Communications and partners including the African Union Commission and UN bodies, it provides a multidisciplinary curriculum and networking platform for African internet governance leaders. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand with good content quality and clear navigation, targeting stakeholders in internet governance, policy, and development sectors across Africa. Technically, the website is built on Drupal CMS with modern front-end libraries such as Slick Carousel and Blazy for lazy loading images. The site is mobile optimized and accessible, with moderate performance. However, there is room for improvement in security posture, including enabling DNSSEC, adding security headers, and publishing privacy and cookie policies to enhance compliance and trust. Security-wise, the domain registration is consistent and legitimate, with protective domain statuses and a registrant matching the organizational identity. No critical vulnerabilities or blocking mechanisms were detected. However, the absence of privacy and cookie policies and security headers are notable compliance and security gaps. Overall, the website is trustworthy and professional but would benefit from enhanced privacy compliance and security best practices to improve its risk profile and user trust.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of afrisig.org. View the latest report
3 of 7 checks could not complete. The site may be unreachable or blocking automated scans, so the results below cover only what could be checked. Try a rescan later.

NIS2 and GDPR posture

NIS2 outside view
Not assessed
GDPR outside view
Not assessed

Both readouts depend on the site's pages, which could not be loaded in this scan.

Priority findings

2 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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

      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

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

Keep watching afrisig.org

This scan found 11 issues across 4 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
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
40
Average
44

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • GDPR outside view: 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

AfriSIG operates as a niche non-profit educational and advocacy organization within the African internet governance ecosystem. Its market positioning is strong due to longstanding partnerships with reputable organizations such as APC, African Union Commission, and UN bodies. The business model focuses on capacity building through annual events, training, and alumni networking. Revenue streams likely include grants and sponsorships. The target customer segments are policy makers, activists, academics, and ICT professionals in Africa. Growth indicators include consistent annual events since 2013 and recognition such as the WSIS Prize. The partnership ecosystem is robust, enhancing credibility and reach. Strategic observations suggest opportunities to expand digital presence and formalize compliance documentation.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is moderate. The domain is protected with clientDeleteProhibited and related statuses, indicating good domain management. However, the lack of DNSSEC and security headers reduces defense-in-depth. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The absence of privacy and cookie policies indicates compliance gaps, particularly with GDPR. Incident response readiness and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not publicly documented, which could delay response to security incidents. Overall, the security culture appears cautious but could be improved by adopting modern security standards and transparency practices.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to prevent DNS spoofing and improve domain security.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to enhance GDPR and global privacy compliance.
  3. Implement HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  4. Add a security.txt file and vulnerability disclosure policy to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Consider adding contact phone numbers and physical addresses to improve transparency and user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Association for Progressive Communications
Description
AfriSIG is the African School on Internet Governance, an annual event focused on internet and digital policy in Africa, convened by APC and partners. It provides multidisciplinary curriculum and networking for African internet governance leaders.
Key services
Internet governance training, Policy advocacy, Networking and alumni engagement
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal CMS, Normalize.css, Slick Carousel, Blazy (lazy loading images), Pure CSS framework
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
60/100
Good practices seen
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content about African School on Internet Governance
  2. No privacy or cookie policies found, which is a compliance gap
  3. No visible contact phone numbers or physical addresses; only email contact found
  4. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information present
  5. Website uses Drupal CMS with modern front-end libraries
  6. No advertising or tracking scripts detected
  7. Content is professionally presented and relevant to target audience
  8. WHOIS data supports legitimacy and organizational consistency
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses Drupal CMS with a combination of Normalize.css, Pure CSS framework, Slick Carousel for slideshows, and Blazy for lazy loading images. The HTML structure is valid and includes accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels. Performance is moderate, with lazy loading improving image load times. The site is mobile responsive and SEO optimized with canonical links and meta viewport tags. There is no evidence of heavy third-party tracking or advertising scripts, which benefits privacy and performance. Hosting provider details are not explicit but the registrar is Total Web Solutions Limited. Technical risks include missing DNSSEC and security headers, which should be addressed to reduce attack surface.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 65/100Medium30 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with afrisig.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 afrisig.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.