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Security report for arcticcoast.info

Other · N/a

High risk. 9 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 3 other checks.

Security score

49/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The Arctic Coastal Dynamics (ACD) website serves as an informational and collaborative platform for a scientific project focused on Arctic coastal processes and climate change impacts. The site provides resources such as GIS data, photo galleries, publications, and community forums, targeting researchers and stakeholders in Arctic science. The project is affiliated with reputable international scientific organizations, enhancing its credibility. Technically, the website is built on Joomla CMS with Bootstrap and jQuery, offering a moderate performance and good mobile responsiveness. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enforced but lacks advanced security headers and anti-CSRF protections. Privacy compliance is weak due to absence of privacy and cookie policies, and no explicit contact information is provided. Overall, the site is trustworthy and professional but could improve in privacy and security practices.

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

9 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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

  3. 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 arcticcoast.info

This scan found 24 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

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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
60
Email security
40
DNS health
75
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
35
Average
49

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

ACD operates as a niche scientific collaboration platform with a non-commercial model focused on knowledge sharing and community engagement. Its market position is specialized within Arctic research, supported by partnerships with international scientific bodies. The website's content and resources cater to a targeted audience of scientists and environmental stakeholders. The absence of commercial elements and advertising aligns with its academic and research orientation. Growth indicators include ongoing event announcements and active publication archives. The partnership ecosystem includes Arctic Portal and major Arctic science organizations, reinforcing its strategic collaborations.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a basic to moderate security maturity level. HTTPS is properly implemented, ensuring encrypted communications. However, the lack of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security reduces protection against common web attacks. The login form is present but lacks visible anti-CSRF tokens, which could expose it to cross-site request forgery risks. No incident response or security policy information is available, indicating limited transparency in security governance. The absence of privacy and cookie policies also suggests gaps in compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR. Overall, while no critical vulnerabilities are evident, improvements in security headers, form protections, and privacy disclosures are recommended.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to enhance GDPR compliance and user trust.
  2. Add security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to strengthen defense against web attacks.
  3. Incorporate anti-CSRF tokens in all forms, especially login forms, to prevent cross-site request forgery.
  4. Provide clear contact information and incident response channels to improve transparency and user support.
  5. Regularly update CMS and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities and maintain security posture.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Description
The Arctic Coastal Dynamics (ACD) project started in 1999 as an initiative of the International Permafrost Association (IPA) and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC).
Key services
Information dissemination about Arctic coastal dynamics, Resources such as GIS data and photo galleries, Publication archives including newsletters and workshop reports, Community and forum engagement, Event announcements
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Bootstrap, Joomla CMS, jcemediabox, dpcalendar, bm-cool-menu
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
Joomla CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
65/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Login form uses POST method with password field

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (gtag.js)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a scientific project portal focused on Arctic coastal dynamics
  2. Content is well structured with clear navigation and relevant resources
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly provided on homepage
  4. No privacy or cookie policies found on homepage
  5. Login form present for community access but no visible advanced security tokens
  6. Use of reputable external partner domains and social media links
  7. No advertising or affiliate marketing detected
  8. Google Analytics used for visitor tracking without visible privacy disclosures
Technical notes

Notes

The website utilizes Joomla CMS with Bootstrap and jQuery libraries, indicating a mature but somewhat dated technology stack. The presence of plugins like jcemediabox and dpcalendar adds interactive features. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization, but accessibility features are basic. SEO optimization is minimal with standard meta tags but no advanced structured data or Open Graph tags detected. Hosting appears to be managed by Arctic Portal, a reputable scientific hosting provider. Technical debt is low but modernization opportunities exist, particularly in adopting modern security practices and enhancing accessibility compliance.
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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