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Security report for april.org

APRIL · Other · France

Medium risk. 6 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

APRIL is a well-established French non-profit association founded in 1996, dedicated to promoting and defending free software and open standards. It serves a broad audience including individuals, professionals, institutions, and the French-speaking community. The website reflects a mature organization with consistent branding, a rich content offering including news, events, podcasts, and community resources. Technically, the site is built on Drupal CMS, uses jQuery and Matomo analytics, and is served over HTTPS with domain transfer protections in place. However, there is room for improvement in security practices such as enabling DNSSEC and implementing security headers. Privacy compliance is basic, with no explicit privacy or cookie policies found on the main site. Contact information is primarily via forms and linked contact pages, with no direct emails or phone numbers visible. Overall, APRIL's website is professional, trustworthy, and serves its mission effectively.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of april.org. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 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

6 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 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

    • 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

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

Keep watching april.org

This scan found 23 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

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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
25
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
50
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

APRIL holds a strong market position as a pioneering free software advocacy group in France with a medium-sized membership base. Its business model is non-profit, relying on memberships and community engagement. The organization maintains a broad partnership ecosystem with related domains supporting various aspects of free software promotion. The website content and structure support its advocacy and educational goals, targeting a general audience interested in free software. The association's longevity and consistent domain registration reinforce its credibility.

Security posture

The website benefits from HTTPS and domain transfer protection, indicating a baseline security posture. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers reduces its defense-in-depth. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is published, which could hinder rapid response to security issues. The login form uses POST method, but no advanced security features are evident in the HTML. Privacy compliance is limited, lacking cookie consent mechanisms and explicit privacy policies. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could be enhanced with standard best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and integrity.
  2. Implement standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Publish a clear privacy policy and cookie consent mechanism to improve GDPR compliance.
  4. Provide explicit security policy and incident response contact information to enhance trust and readiness.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and CMS modules to mitigate vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
APRIL
Description
APRIL is a French non-profit association founded in 1996 dedicated to promoting and defending free software and open standards in the French-speaking world. It has 2727 members including individuals, companies, associations, and local authorities. APRIL acts as a major player in the democratization and dissemination of free software to the public, professionals, and institutions.
Key services
Promotion and defense of free software, Providing resources and information, Organizing events and conferences, Publishing news, press releases, and podcasts, Offering community platforms and working groups
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Drupal CMS, Matomo Analytics
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure login form with POST method

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content in French.
  2. No privacy or cookie policy explicitly found on the homepage or main navigation.
  3. Uses Drupal CMS with multiple modules and custom themes.
  4. Includes a user login form with username and password fields.
  5. Multiple RSS feeds and external links to partner and community sites.
  6. Matomo analytics used for tracking with cross-domain linking enabled.
  7. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  8. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  9. No explicit security headers detected in provided data.
  10. Domain WHOIS data is consistent and indicates a legitimate, long-standing organization.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal CMS with multiple modules and custom themes, using jQuery and Matomo for analytics. The site is mobile responsive and has good SEO optimization with multiple RSS feeds and structured navigation. Performance is moderate, with no critical errors detected. The technical infrastructure is stable but could benefit from modernization in security practices and enhanced accessibility features. Hosting provider details are not explicit but domain registrar is Gandi SAS, a reputable provider.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 58/100Medium31 findingsView report
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