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Security report for afs.cr

AFS Programas Interculturales Costa Rica · Education · Costa Rica

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers and SSL/TLS.

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

AFS Costa Rica is a well-established non-profit organization dedicated to providing intercultural learning experiences through international exchange programs, local volunteering, and hosting families. The website reflects a strong market position within Costa Rica's education and non-profit sectors, targeting students, volunteers, and host families. The organization leverages modern web technologies including WordPress, CDN hosting, and Google services to deliver a performant and accessible user experience. Security posture is solid with HTTPS, reCAPTCHA, and cookie consent mechanisms, though explicit security headers and incident response information are absent. Overall, the site demonstrates professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance with privacy regulations, supporting its legitimacy despite the absence of WHOIS data. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing security policies, and improving accessibility.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
95/ 100 · Low
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

5 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

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

    • 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. 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
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching afs.cr

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.

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

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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
47
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
95
Average
67

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

AFS Costa Rica operates within the education and non-profit sectors, focusing on intercultural exchange and volunteerism. Its business model is service-oriented, providing programs for students and volunteers to foster global citizenship. The organization benefits from a clear brand identity, consistent messaging, and a strong social media presence. Revenue streams likely include program fees and donations. The website's content and structure support effective engagement with its target audience, and partnerships with the global AFS network enhance its credibility and reach. Growth indicators include active program offerings and community involvement. The lack of visible WHOIS data is typical for non-profits and does not detract from operational transparency.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS and Google reCAPTCHA to secure user interactions and prevent automated abuse. Cookie consent banners indicate GDPR compliance efforts. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. Incident response and security policy documentation are not publicly available, which could hinder rapid response to security incidents. Overall, the security posture is good but could be strengthened by adopting additional best practices and transparency measures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and explicitly configure security headers including CSP, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Regularly audit and update WordPress core and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance website accessibility to meet WCAG standards for broader inclusivity.
  5. Maintain and update privacy and cookie policies to reflect evolving regulations and practices.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
AFS Programas Interculturales Costa Rica
Description
AFS es una organización sin fines de lucro que ofrece experiencias de aprendizaje intercultural a través de programas de intercambio al extranjero, programas de voluntariado local y familias anfitrionas.
Key services
Programas de intercambio al extranjero, Programas de voluntariado local, Familias anfitrionas
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.8.1, Yoast SEO plugin, Google reCAPTCHA, jQuery, Google Fonts, Vimeo video embed
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA for forms
  • Cookie consent banner for GDPR compliance

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (G-RJJ4K74H55)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google reCAPTCHA
Marketing tools
AddToAny social sharing
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content in Spanish targeting Costa Rican audience
  2. No WHOIS data available, indicating privacy protection or registry issues
  3. Strong branding and consistent design aligned with AFS international identity
  4. Use of modern web technologies and CDN for performance
  5. Good privacy and cookie compliance with visible banners and policies
  6. No visible security or content blocking mechanisms
  7. No contact emails explicitly found in HTML, but phone and physical address clearly provided
  8. Social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
  9. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress 6.8.1 with Yoast SEO and Google reCAPTCHA integration, hosted on Amazon Cloudfront CDN for optimized content delivery. It uses modern web fonts and embeds Vimeo videos for rich media content. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and basic accessibility features. SEO is well addressed with meta tags, Open Graph, and JSON-LD structured data. The technical stack is modern and appropriate for a non-profit educational organization, though some technical debt may exist in the form of missing explicit security headers and limited accessibility enhancements.
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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