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Security report for amal.pt

Comunidade Intermunicipal do Algarve (AMAL) · Government · Portugal

High risk. 10 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

43/100

Risk levelHigh

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

AMAL (Comunidade Intermunicipal do Algarve) is a regional governmental entity coordinating 16 municipalities in the Algarve region of Portugal. The website serves as an official portal providing information on regional governance, environmental initiatives, social development, cultural programs, economic projects, mobility, and digital transformation efforts. It targets residents, municipal authorities, and stakeholders interested in Algarve's regional affairs. The site is well-structured, regularly updated with news, and maintains a consistent brand identity aligned with its governmental role. Technically, it is built on Joomla CMS with modern front-end technologies and includes accessibility features such as a screen reader plugin. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS and HSTS enabled, but lacks some security headers and a vulnerability disclosure mechanism. Privacy compliance is supported by a comprehensive GDPR policy, though cookie consent mechanisms are absent. Overall, the site is trustworthy and professional, reflecting its official status.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
10/ 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

10 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.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  2. 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';…

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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
62
Security headers
20
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
10
Average
43

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

AMAL holds a key position as the intermunicipal community for Algarve, coordinating multiple municipalities to foster regional development across sectors including environment, social welfare, culture, economy, transport, and digital innovation. Its business model is governmental, focusing on public service and regional coordination rather than commercial revenue. The organization leverages partnerships with regional and national entities, as evidenced by linked domains and project collaborations. The website's content and structure indicate a focus on transparency, stakeholder engagement, and public communication. Growth indicators include active news updates and project announcements. The partnership ecosystem includes regional development agencies and municipal websites, reinforcing its central role in Algarve's governance.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and HSTS header present, ensuring encrypted communications. However, it lacks several important security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options, which are recommended to mitigate common web vulnerabilities like clickjacking and MIME sniffing. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page is available, limiting transparency for security researchers. The use of modern libraries and accessibility features is positive, but continuous monitoring of third-party scripts is advised. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities were detected in the HTML content. Incident response contacts are not publicly listed, which could be improved for better security readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a Content-Security-Policy header to enhance protection against cross-site scripting attacks.
  2. Add X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options headers to prevent clickjacking and MIME sniffing.
  3. Publish a security policy or vulnerability disclosure page (security.txt) to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Introduce a cookie consent banner to comply fully with GDPR cookie requirements.
  5. Provide clear contact information including security incident response contacts to improve transparency and trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Comunidade Intermunicipal do Algarve (AMAL)
Description
AMAL is the Intermunicipal Community of Algarve, a regional governmental entity coordinating 16 municipalities in the Algarve region of Portugal. It focuses on regional development, environment, social development, culture, economic dynamization, mobility, and digital transformation.
Key services
Regional planning and management, Environmental programs and protected areas co-management, Social development initiatives, Cultural programming and library network, Economic development projects and partnerships, Mobility and transport authority, Digital transformation and cybersecurity competence center
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Joomla CMS, Bootstrap, Font Awesome, Google Fonts (Asap), jQuery, Revolution Slider, SP Page Builder
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
Joomla
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of modern JS libraries
  • Screen reader accessibility plugin implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
unitemplates.com
Tracking pixels
Google Analytics (via gtag.js)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a regional governmental portal for Algarve, Portugal.
  2. Content is rich with news, municipal information, and regional projects.
  3. Uses Joomla CMS with modern front-end libraries.
  4. No privacy or cookie banners detected despite GDPR policy presence.
  5. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found on the homepage.
  6. Social media presence on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
  7. Security headers partially implemented; room for improvement.
  8. No visible terms of service or incident response contacts.
  9. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Joomla CMS, utilizing Bootstrap for responsive design, Font Awesome for icons, and Google Fonts for typography. It incorporates advanced front-end components such as Revolution Slider and SP Page Builder, indicating a modern and modular architecture. Performance is moderate, with some heavy scripts like sliders that may impact load times. Accessibility is addressed through a screen reader plugin and semantic HTML. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and structured navigation. Hosting details are not explicitly identified. Technical debt appears low, but security header implementation and cookie consent mechanisms are areas for modernization. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the business goals effectively but could benefit from enhanced security and privacy features.
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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