Skip to main content

Security report for ahrq.gov

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality · Government · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is a U.S. government agency under the Department of Health and Human Services focused on advancing healthcare quality, safety, accessibility, and affordability through research, data analytics, and funding programs. The website serves healthcare professionals, researchers, policymakers, and the public by providing authoritative resources, tools, and publications. It holds a strong market position as an official government source for healthcare research and quality improvement. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10 and incorporates modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Leaflet.js, and D3.js for data visualization. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and well-structured with good SEO practices. Performance is moderate with room for optimization. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and uses some security headers, though it lacks explicit Content Security Policy and other advanced headers. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy compliance is basic with a privacy policy and cookie policy present but no explicit consent mechanism. WHOIS data is incomplete but the .gov domain and content strongly support legitimacy. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and safe with a high AI score of 87. Recommendations include enhancing security headers, implementing cookie consent for GDPR compliance, and publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy to further strengthen trust and security posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
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 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 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

  3. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Potential Subdomain Takeover

      Subdomain dev.ahrq.gov points to unregistered service ahrq-drupal8-dev-1771503392.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com

      What to do: Remove or fix CNAME record to prevent subdomain takeover

      • WSTG-CONF-10
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching ahrq.gov

This scan found 18 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. 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
100
Security headers
40
Email security
85
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
74

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention ahrq.gov, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
610
Employees
0
Customers
572
Third parties
38
Weak passwords
17%

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for ahrq.gov.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

AHRQ operates as a large government entity providing healthcare research and quality improvement services. Its business model revolves around funding research, disseminating data and tools, and supporting healthcare organizations and providers. The agency targets healthcare professionals, researchers, and policymakers, leveraging partnerships within the U.S. government ecosystem. The website reflects a mature digital presence with consistent branding and authoritative content. Growth indicators include active funding opportunities, research publications, and engagement through social media and email updates. Strategic observations highlight the agency's role as a trusted source for healthcare quality data and its integration with other HHS initiatives.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security posture with mandatory HTTPS and some security headers in place. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive information were found. However, the absence of a Content Security Policy and other recommended headers such as X-Content-Type-Options and Referrer-Policy suggests room for improvement. Privacy compliance is partial, lacking explicit cookie consent mechanisms and GDPR-specific disclosures. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure policies are not publicly evident. Overall, the security maturity is solid for a government site but could benefit from enhanced policies and transparency to meet evolving compliance standards.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a comprehensive Content Security Policy (CSP) to mitigate cross-site scripting and related attacks.
  2. Add additional security headers including X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  3. Introduce a cookie consent mechanism to improve GDPR compliance and user privacy transparency.
  4. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Regularly review and update privacy policies to align with international data protection regulations and best practices.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Description
AHRQ advances excellence in healthcare by producing evidence to make healthcare safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable.
Key services
Healthcare research and evidence generation, Data and analytics provision, Funding and grants for healthcare research, Tools and resources for healthcare quality improvement, Publications and reports on healthcare quality and safety
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Leaflet.js, D3.js, AddToAny sharing
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google Tag Manager for analytics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Digital Analytics Program (DAP)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Digital Analytics Program (dap.digitalgov.gov)
Marketing tools
AddToAny sharing
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a well-maintained U.S. government agency site focused on healthcare research and quality.
  2. Content is comprehensive, professionally presented, and highly relevant to healthcare stakeholders.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity detected.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools is evident.
  5. Security posture is good but could be improved with additional headers and explicit policies.
  6. WHOIS data is incomplete but domain legitimacy is supported by .gov TLD and content.
  7. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; site fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by Drupal 10 CMS, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries such as Leaflet.js for mapping and D3.js for data visualization. Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics are used for user tracking and analytics. The site is mobile responsive and includes accessibility features. Performance is moderate, with potential optimization in resource loading and caching. The technical infrastructure appears stable and well-maintained, suitable for a government agency with high traffic and content demands. Opportunities exist to enhance security configurations and improve privacy compliance mechanisms.
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 ahrq.gov. 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 ahrq.gov.

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.