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Security report for agriculture.gov.au

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry · Government · Australia

Partial score · DNS & email only

65/100

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

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) is an Australian government entity responsible for enhancing agricultural industries, managing biosecurity risks, and supporting sustainable practices in agriculture, fisheries, and forestry. The website serves as an authoritative source for industry stakeholders, researchers, and the public, providing comprehensive information, news, and online services. The department positions itself as a key government authority with a strong focus on biosecurity and trade facilitation. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10 using the GovCMS platform, ensuring modern content management and compliance with government digital standards. The site integrates multiple analytics and tracking tools such as Google Analytics, Hotjar, and Monsido, with privacy considerations like IP anonymization and CAPTCHA protections. The site demonstrates good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility features. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, uses reCAPTCHA on forms, and avoids exposing sensitive data. While explicit security headers are not fully confirmed, the overall posture is strong with no visible vulnerabilities. Privacy policies are comprehensive and GDPR compliant, though cookie consent mechanisms could be enhanced. WHOIS data is privacy-protected as expected for government domains, with no suspicious indicators. Overall, the website is a trustworthy, professional government portal with excellent content quality and technical implementation. Strategic recommendations include verifying and enhancing security headers, implementing a security.txt file for vulnerability disclosures, and improving cookie consent transparency to further strengthen privacy compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
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

3 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 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 agriculture.gov.au

This scan found 13 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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  • 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
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
65

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

DAFF operates as a large government entity within the Australian public sector, focusing on agriculture, biosecurity, fisheries, and forestry. Its market position is authoritative and regulatory, serving a broad audience including farmers, industry stakeholders, researchers, and the general public. The department's business model revolves around policy implementation, regulatory enforcement, research, and public service delivery. Revenue streams are government-funded, with no commercial sales. The department maintains partnerships with related government bodies and agencies to coordinate biosecurity and agricultural initiatives. Growth indicators include ongoing research programs and digital service enhancements. The partnership ecosystem is robust, involving multiple government and oversight agencies. Strategic observations highlight a strong commitment to sustainability, biosecurity, and community support.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, use of CAPTCHA to prevent automated abuse, and integration of privacy-conscious analytics tools. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. However, explicit security headers such as X-Frame-Options and Content-Security-Policy should be verified and implemented if missing to mitigate clickjacking and content injection risks. The absence of a published security.txt file limits formal vulnerability disclosure channels. Privacy compliance is strong with a comprehensive privacy policy and GDPR considerations, though cookie consent mechanisms could be improved. Incident response contact information is not explicitly provided, which could be enhanced to improve security readiness and transparency. Overall, the site aligns well with government security standards but has room for incremental improvements.

Recommendations

  1. Verify and implement comprehensive security headers including X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Content-Security-Policy.
  2. Publish a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure and improve incident response transparency.
  3. Enhance cookie consent mechanisms to clearly inform users and comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  4. Provide explicit incident response contact channels such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure no vulnerabilities or privacy issues arise.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Description
We enhance our agricultural industries and trade, and manage the threat of biosecurity risks to Australia.
Key services
Agriculture and land management, Biosecurity and trade regulation, Science and research, Online services for compliance and reporting, Support for farmers and rural communities
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, GovCMS, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Hotjar, reCAPTCHA v2, Monsido
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Platforms
GovCMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of reCAPTCHA for forms
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google Tag Manager with anonymize IP
  • CAPTCHA on feedback form

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Hotjar
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar, Monsido
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official Australian government website for Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
  2. Comprehensive content covering agriculture, biosecurity, research, and support services.
  3. Modern CMS (Drupal 10) and GovCMS platform used.
  4. Strong focus on accessibility and mobile optimization.
  5. Use of multiple analytics and tracking tools with privacy considerations.
  6. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  7. WHOIS data limited due to privacy but consistent with government domain practices.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern Drupal 10 CMS platform integrated with GovCMS, a government-specific hosting and management solution. It uses Google Tag Manager to manage analytics and tracking scripts, including Google Analytics and Hotjar for user behavior insights. The site employs reCAPTCHA v2 for form protection and Monsido for accessibility and compliance monitoring. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. The site uses canonical and shortlink tags for SEO and includes Open Graph metadata for social sharing. Technical debt appears low with up-to-date libraries and scripts. Opportunities exist to enhance security headers and cookie consent implementations. Hosting appears stable and aligned with government infrastructure standards.
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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