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Security report for alector.com

Alector Therapeutics · Healthcare · United States

Low risk. No critical or high findings.

Security score

86/100

Risk levelLow

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

Alector Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in developing therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. Founded in 2008, the company positions itself as an innovative player in the healthcare sector, focusing on advancing treatments that address critical unmet needs in neurodegeneration. Their website targets patients, investors, and the scientific community, providing detailed information about their scientific approach, pipeline, and patient resources. The company maintains a professional online presence with comprehensive privacy and cookie policies, reflecting strong compliance with GDPR and data protection standards. Technically, the website is built on WordPress and leverages modern web technologies including jQuery, Bootstrap, and Flickity for UI components, alongside Google Tag Manager for analytics and OneTrust for cookie consent management. The site is mobile-optimized and demonstrates good SEO and accessibility practices, although some accessibility features could be enhanced. Hosting and DNS are managed via DomainControl, with no DNSSEC enabled, which is a recommended improvement. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and uses cookie consent mechanisms, but lacks some advanced security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Content-Type-Options. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The WHOIS data confirms domain legitimacy with a long registration period and appropriate domain status flags. Overall, the security posture is solid but could benefit from additional hardening. The overall risk assessment is low, with no signs of malicious activity or suspicious content. Strategic recommendations include enabling DNSSEC, implementing additional security headers, and publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy to enhance transparency and trust. The website's design, content quality, and compliance measures position Alector as a credible and trustworthy healthcare company online.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
88/ 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

No critical or high findings. These medium findings are worth fixing next.

  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.

    • Medium

      Missing X-XSS-Protection header

      Legacy XSS protection (deprecated but still recommended)

      What to do: Add "X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block"

    • Medium

      Missing Permissions-Policy header

      Controls browser features and APIs

      What to do: Implement a Permissions-Policy to restrict feature access

      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Permissions-Policy: accelerometer=(), autoplay=(), camera=(), cross-origin-isolated=(),…

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Medium

      Privacy policy may not be GDPR compliant

      Privacy policy lacks explicit GDPR compliance elements

      What to do: Update privacy policy to explicitly address GDPR requirements and user rights

  3. 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.

    • Medium

      No MTA-STS Policy

      MTA-STS enforces TLS for email delivery

      What to do: Implement MTA-STS to prevent downgrade attacks

  4. 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.

    • Medium

      SSL Certificate Expires Within 90 Days

      SSL certificate expires in 74 days

      What to do: Plan SSL certificate renewal

Keep watching alector.com

This scan found 14 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.

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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
95
Security headers
70
Email security
80
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
88
Average
86

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 alector.com, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for alector.com right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

Alector operates in the competitive biopharmaceutical market with a focus on neurodegenerative diseases, a high-need therapeutic area. Their business model centers on research-driven drug development, targeting diseases like Alzheimer's, Frontotemporal Dementia, and ALS. The company leverages human genetics, neuroscience, and immunology insights to develop first- and best-in-class medicines. Their investor relations presence and patient-focused content indicate a dual approach to stakeholder engagement. The absence of parent or subsidiary companies suggests independent operation. Growth indicators include active pipeline updates and recent press releases. Partnerships appear limited to investor relations and scientific collaborations. The company’s digital presence supports its market positioning as an innovative biotech with a strong scientific foundation.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level. HTTPS is enforced, and cookie consent is managed via OneTrust, indicating compliance with privacy regulations. However, the absence of DNSSEC and some security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Content-Type-Options represents areas for improvement. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy was found, which could enhance incident response readiness and transparency. No exposed credentials or sensitive data were detected. The use of modern JavaScript libraries is noted, but no vulnerable versions were identified. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a healthcare company website but should be enhanced to meet higher standards and regulatory expectations.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement a Content-Security-Policy header to mitigate cross-site scripting and related attacks.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure or security policy page to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Add additional security headers such as X-Content-Type-Options and Referrer-Policy for enhanced protection.
  5. Conduct regular security audits and update third-party libraries to avoid vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Alector Therapeutics
Description
Alector is a biopharmaceutical company that develops therapies for the treatment of neurodegeneration diseases.
Key services
Therapeutic development for neurodegenerative diseases, Scientific research and publications, Patient support and information
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Bootstrap, Flickity, Google Tag Manager, OneTrust Cookie Consent, Yett (script loader)
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of OneTrust for cookie consent
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of client-side script loading control (Yett)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
OneTrust Cookie Consent
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Strong focus on neurodegenerative disease therapeutics.
  3. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with GDPR compliance.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and consent management.
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  6. No exposed sensitive information or security misconfigurations detected.
  7. WHOIS data supports legitimacy and consistent business presence.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with a modern tech stack including jQuery, Bootstrap, and Flickity for UI components. Google Tag Manager is used for analytics, and OneTrust manages cookie consent, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. The site is mobile-optimized and SEO-friendly with proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Hosting is via DomainControl with GoDaddy DNS servers, but DNSSEC is not enabled. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. Accessibility is basic but could be improved. The site uses asynchronous script loading and modern CSS presets, indicating attention to performance and user experience. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the business needs effectively but could benefit from enhanced security configurations and performance tuning.
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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