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Security report for aftld.org

AfTLD · Telecommunications · N/a

High risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

45/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The Africa Top Level Domains Organization (AfTLD) is a regional association representing country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) managers across Africa. It provides a collaborative forum for ccTLD operators to discuss registry management issues and to present unified positions in global DNS industry forums. The organization targets ccTLD managers and stakeholders within the African internet ecosystem, operating primarily as a membership association. The website reflects a professional presence with detailed organizational information, news, events, and membership resources, positioning AfTLD as a key regional authority in telecommunications domain management. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with a modern plugin ecosystem including SEO, membership management, and interactive sliders. While the site is mobile-optimized and SEO-friendly, performance is hindered by a large page size and numerous resources, resulting in slow load times. The hosting provider is not explicitly identified, but the IP address suggests regional hosting. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS with modern TLS protocols and no known SSL vulnerabilities. However, it lacks several important security enhancements such as HSTS, DNSSEC, DMARC, and OCSP stapling, which are recommended to improve domain and email security. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies were found, indicating gaps in compliance and user transparency. Contact information is primarily via social media and a contact form, with no direct emails or phone numbers clearly provided. Overall, the site demonstrates a moderate security posture and good business credibility but requires improvements in privacy compliance and security best practices to enhance trust and resilience. Strategic recommendations include implementing security headers, publishing privacy and cookie policies, and enabling DNS and email security protocols.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of aftld.org. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 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

8 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. 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

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

Keep watching aftld.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

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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
77
Security headers
20
Email security
50
DNS health
75
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
25
Average
45

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

AfTLD operates as a niche membership organization serving African ccTLD operators, providing governance, collaboration, and representation services. Its market position is that of a regional authority in domain name management within Africa, leveraging partnerships with entities like IT-NUM and NIC Senegal. The business model is membership-based, targeting ccTLD managers and related stakeholders. The website content and structure support community engagement through news, events, and membership resources, indicating active ecosystem participation. Growth indicators include recent news posts and event calendars. The partnership ecosystem includes web design and domain registry contributors. The organization appears small in size, founded in 2016, with no subsidiaries or parent companies identified.

Security posture

The website's security maturity is moderate. It employs HTTPS with TLS 1.3 and 1.2, avoiding known SSL vulnerabilities. However, it lacks critical security mechanisms such as HSTS, DNSSEC, DMARC, and OCSP stapling, which are essential for protecting domain integrity and email authenticity. No security or incident response policies are published, and no dedicated security contact channels are visible. The absence of privacy and cookie policies further indicates compliance gaps. The site does not expose sensitive data or use vulnerable libraries but could improve form security and transparency. Overall, the security culture appears basic, with room for significant enhancements to meet modern standards and regulatory requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload to enforce HTTPS.
  2. Implement DNSSEC to secure DNS queries and prevent spoofing.
  3. Deploy DMARC policy to protect against email spoofing and phishing.
  4. Enable OCSP stapling to improve SSL certificate revocation checking performance and security.
  5. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear consent mechanisms to improve compliance.
  6. Add explicit contact emails and phone numbers for support and incident response to enhance trust.
  7. Regularly audit and update plugins and libraries to avoid vulnerabilities.
  8. Optimize website performance by reducing page size and resource count.
  9. Consider adding a security.txt file and vulnerability disclosure policy to encourage responsible reporting.
  10. Enhance accessibility features and conduct audits to improve user experience for all visitors.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with a range of plugins including LayerSlider, Ultimate Member, Contact Form 7, Yoast SEO, and Slider Revolution. It uses jQuery and Google Fonts, with additional scripts for social media integration and translation services. The hosting IP is 49.12.131.54, with no DNSSEC or CAA records configured. SSL uses a certificate valid for aftld.org and *.aftld.org, supporting TLS 1.3 and 1.2 but lacking HSTS and OCSP stapling. Performance is slow due to a large page size (~3.8MB) and high resource count (264). The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and basic accessibility. SEO is supported by meta tags, Open Graph, and JSON-LD structured data. Technical debt includes missing security headers and optimization opportunities in resource loading and caching.
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. 51/100 +1Medium32 findingsView report
  2. 50/100Medium33 findingsView report
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