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Security report for alpsp.org

Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers · Non-profit · N/a

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) is an international trade association supporting not-for-profit organizations and institutions involved in scholarly and professional publishing. The website presents a professional and comprehensive platform offering training, events, membership services, and publications tailored to the scholarly publishing community. The organization positions itself as a key player in the non-profit publishing sector with a strong focus on education and community engagement. Technically, the website is built on TYPO3 CMS, employs modern web technologies, and integrates Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing. The site is well-structured, mobile-optimized, and provides clear navigation and rich content. Security-wise, the site enforces HTTPS and implements cookie consent mechanisms aligned with GDPR, but lacks explicit security headers and published security policies. The absence of WHOIS registration details limits domain trust verification, though the website's professional presentation supports its legitimacy. Overall, the site demonstrates a mature digital presence with room for improvement in security transparency and domain registration clarity.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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

3 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

  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

  3. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • High

      High-Risk Service Exposed: FTP

      Port 21 (FTP) is publicly accessible - FTP - Often unencrypted file transfer

      What to do: Consider restricting access to FTP or implementing strong authentication

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

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

Keep watching alpsp.org

This scan found 16 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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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
72
Security headers
95
Email security
82
DNS health
80
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
68
Average
70

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

ALPSP operates as a membership-based non-profit trade association serving the scholarly publishing sector. Its business model revolves around providing value-added services such as training programs, industry events, publications, and community networking to its members. The organization targets professionals and organizations within scholarly and professional publishing globally. ALPSP's market position is strengthened by its recognized events like the annual conference and awards, and its role as a knowledge hub. The website reflects a medium-sized entity with consistent branding and trust signals including governance transparency and active social media engagement. Revenue streams likely include membership fees, event registrations, and sponsorships. The partnership with web design agency Liquid Light indicates a professional approach to digital presence. Strategic observations suggest ALPSP is well-placed to expand its influence through enhanced digital services and security posture improvements.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good baseline security posture with enforced HTTPS and a GDPR-compliant cookie consent mechanism. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and others reduces protection against common web vulnerabilities. No sensitive data exposure or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The lack of a published security policy or incident response contact channels indicates a gap in transparency and preparedness for security incidents. The WHOIS data is incomplete, which may raise concerns about domain ownership verification. Overall, the security maturity is moderate, with recommendations to enhance header implementation, publish security policies, and establish vulnerability disclosure processes to strengthen trust and resilience.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response information on the website to improve transparency and preparedness.
  3. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program and provide a security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Verify and update WHOIS domain registration details to enhance domain trustworthiness and legitimacy.
  5. Continue to monitor and optimize privacy compliance mechanisms, ensuring ongoing alignment with GDPR and related regulations.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers
Description
International trade body which supports and represents not-for-profit organizations and institutions that publish scholarly and professional content.
Key services
Training (virtual, in-house, on-demand), Events (conferences, webinars, awards), Membership services, Publications (Learned Publishing journal, newsletters), Community networking and special interest groups
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TYPO3 CMS, Google Tag Manager, JavaScript, CSS
Frameworks
TYPO3
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
good

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 and professional design.
  2. Strong focus on scholarly publishing community and non-profit organizations.
  3. Comprehensive navigation and well-structured content hierarchy.
  4. Cookie consent and privacy policy implemented with GDPR compliance.
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found; contact via web form only.
  6. No explicit security policy or incident response information published.
  7. WHOIS data unavailable, limiting domain trust verification.
  8. Use of TYPO3 CMS and Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing.
  9. No signs of suspicious or malicious content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by TYPO3 CMS, a robust open-source content management system, indicating a mature technical infrastructure. The use of Google Tag Manager facilitates flexible analytics and marketing tag management. The site includes responsive design and accessibility features, contributing to a positive user experience across devices. Performance is moderate, with compressed CSS and JavaScript assets indicating optimization efforts. No hosting provider details were identified from the content. The site uses standard web technologies (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript) and integrates RSS feeds for content syndication. Technical risks are minimal but could be mitigated further by implementing security headers and ensuring regular CMS updates to avoid technical debt.
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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