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Security report for apambiente.pt

Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente · Government · Portugal

Partial score · DNS & email only

75/100

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

The Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente (APA) is the official Portuguese government agency responsible for implementing environmental policies in Portugal. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for environmental information, water resource management, licensing, and public engagement. It targets a broad audience including the general public, government entities, and environmental stakeholders. The APA holds a strong market position as the national authority on environmental matters, offering key services such as environmental monitoring, licensing, and education. The site is well-branded and professionally maintained, reflecting its authoritative status. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10, leveraging modern web technologies and libraries such as Google Analytics for user behavior insights and CookiesJSR for cookie consent management. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, although hosting details are not explicitly identified. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and employs cookie consent mechanisms with anonymized IP tracking in Google Analytics, indicating a strong privacy posture. However, explicit security headers like X-Frame-Options and Content-Security-Policy are not clearly visible in the provided data, suggesting potential areas for enhancement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. The absence of a public security policy or incident response page is noted. Overall, the APA website is a secure, trustworthy, and professionally managed government portal with excellent content quality and privacy compliance. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security header implementation, publishing a security policy and incident response information, and considering a security.txt file for vulnerability disclosures to further strengthen trust and security posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 100 · Critical
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

5 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

    • 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

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Google APIs

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

  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

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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
82
Email security
90
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
25
Average
77
After the cap
75

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

APA operates as a government agency with a clear mandate to implement environmental policies in Portugal. Its business model is service-oriented, focusing on regulatory compliance, environmental monitoring, and public information dissemination. The agency benefits from strong government backing, which positions it as a key player in the environmental sector nationally. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content and multi-language support, indicating a commitment to accessibility and transparency. Revenue streams are likely government-funded, with no commercial activities evident. The partnership ecosystem includes European environmental bodies and local regional administrations. Growth indicators include ongoing projects and certifications such as APCER NP 4552/2022. The agency's operations are aligned with national and EU environmental directives, reinforcing its strategic importance.

Security posture

The APA website demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, cookie consent management, and anonymized analytics tracking. The use of Drupal 10 suggests regular updates and security patches, although explicit details on security headers are limited. No signs of vulnerabilities or data leaks were found in the HTML content. The absence of a published security policy or incident response contact is a gap in transparency and readiness. GDPR compliance is evident through privacy and cookie policies. The site lacks a security.txt file, which could facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosures. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be improved by formalizing incident response communication and enhancing HTTP security headers.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify comprehensive HTTP security headers including X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and Referrer-Policy.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response page to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Create and host a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability reporting.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries for security vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance performance optimization to improve loading speed and user experience.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente
Description
A Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente é a entidade responsável pela implementação das políticas de ambiente em Portugal
Key services
Environmental policy implementation, Water resource management, Environmental licensing, Public environmental information and education, Laboratory services, Environmental monitoring and evaluation
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Analytics, CookiesJSR, Material Icons, Ionicons
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Google Analytics configured with anonymize_ip
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented with opt-in for analytics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
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 a well-structured government agency site with comprehensive environmental policy information.
  2. Strong compliance with GDPR and cookie consent regulations.
  3. Use of modern CMS (Drupal 10) and standard web technologies.
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  5. Good user experience with multi-language support (Portuguese and English).
  6. No visible security policy or incident response page; opportunity for improvement.
  7. No explicit terms of service page found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by Drupal 10, a modern and widely supported CMS, ensuring a robust and scalable platform. It uses standard web fonts and icon libraries such as Material Icons and Ionicons, enhancing visual appeal and usability. Google Analytics is integrated with privacy-conscious settings like IP anonymization and consent-based tracking. Cookie consent is managed via CookiesJSR, indicating compliance with EU regulations. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with a clear navigation structure and multi-language support. Performance is moderate, suggesting potential for caching and resource optimization. No hosting provider details were extracted, which could be relevant for infrastructure assessment. Overall, the technical implementation is solid with opportunities for incremental improvements in security and performance.
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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