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Security report for apco2025.org

APCO International · Government · United States

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

58/100

Risk levelMedium

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

APCO International operates the APCO 2025 Annual Conference & Expo, a key event for public safety communications professionals in the United States. The website serves as an information and registration portal for the event, targeting emergency communications officials, government agencies, and industry vendors. The site is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including jQuery, FontAwesome, and Google Fonts, and uses Matomo and Google Tag Manager for analytics. The design is professional and mobile-optimized, providing a good user experience with clear navigation and relevant content. However, the site lacks explicit privacy and cookie policies, as well as contact information, which impacts privacy compliance and user trust. Security posture is generally good with HTTPS enforced, but the absence of security headers and vulnerability disclosure reduces the overall security maturity. WHOIS data aligns well with the business, indicating legitimacy and consistent domain registration.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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

8 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 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';…

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

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

Keep watching apco2025.org

This scan found 25 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.

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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
60
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
58

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

APCO International holds a strong market position as a leading organizer of public safety communications events. The business model focuses on event hosting, sponsorship, and exhibitor participation, targeting a specialized audience of emergency responders and communications professionals. The website supports this model by providing detailed event information, registration options, and sponsor visibility. The presence of multiple social media channels and partner domains indicates an active engagement strategy. The lack of direct contact details on the site suggests reliance on event registration forms and social media for communication. Overall, the business demonstrates a focused approach with moderate size and a clear sector focus in government and telecommunications.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses asynchronous loading for analytics scripts, which is positive for security and performance. However, the absence of common security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options is a notable gap. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The site does not provide a security policy or incident response contact information, nor a vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file, indicating limited transparency in security practices. These gaps could impact incident response readiness and user trust. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could be significantly improved with standard security headers and published policies.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with consent mechanisms to improve privacy compliance.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to enhance security posture.
  3. Provide clear contact information including emails and phone numbers for general inquiries and incident response.
  4. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to increase transparency and encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Regularly audit and update all plugins and themes to mitigate potential vulnerabilities and maintain performance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
APCO International
Description
APCO International organizes the APCO 2025 Annual Conference & Expo, a premier event for public safety communications officials including frontline telecommunicators, communication center managers, and vendors. The event features educational sessions, committee meetings, special events, and exhibits focused on public safety communications.
Key services
Annual conference and expo, Educational sessions, Committee meetings, Exhibit hall and vendor showcases, Networking and special events
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.8.1, jQuery 3.7.1, FontAwesome 5.15.4, Google Fonts (Open Sans), Matomo Analytics, YUI3, Widgetkit, Beaver Builder plugin
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of async loading for scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo, Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo Analytics
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a WordPress-based event site for APCO 2025 conference.
  2. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages found in the main navigation or footer.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly listed on the homepage or header/footer.
  4. Social media links to official APCO International accounts present.
  5. Use of Matomo and Google Tag Manager for analytics and tracking.
  6. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information.
  7. HTTPS is enforced with no mixed content detected.
  8. No security headers detected in the HTML content.
  9. Content is rich and relevant to the event and target audience.
  10. No signs of WAF or blocking mechanisms.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress 6.8.1 with a combination of plugins including Beaver Builder and Widgetkit, leveraging jQuery and FontAwesome for UI components. Google Fonts are used for typography, and analytics are handled via Matomo and Google Tag Manager. The site loads scripts asynchronously to optimize performance. The design is responsive and mobile-friendly, though accessibility features are basic. SEO optimization is basic with meta tags present but no advanced structured data or Open Graph tags detected. Hosting provider details are not explicitly identified. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but could benefit from enhanced SEO and accessibility improvements.
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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