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Security report for arcticdc.org

Arctic Data Committee · Government · N/a

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 3 other checks.

Security score

52/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Arctic Data Committee (ADC) operates as a non-profit organization focused on coordinating Arctic data interoperability and standards. The website serves as an information hub for researchers and stakeholders interested in polar data, offering resources such as meeting archives, data products, and working groups. The organization appears well-established with a domain age of approximately 8 years, consistent with its operational history. Technically, the site is built on Joomla CMS using Bootstrap and jQuery, providing a moderately performant and mobile-optimized experience. However, the site lacks critical privacy and cookie policies, and no contact information is explicitly provided, which may hinder user trust and compliance with data protection regulations. Security posture is basic with HTTPS enabled but no DNSSEC or security headers detected. Google Analytics is used for minimal user tracking without visible consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is professional and trustworthy but would benefit from enhanced privacy, security, and contact transparency.

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. 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 arcticdc.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.

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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
60
DNS health
75
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
35
Average
52

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

ADC occupies a niche position within the government and non-profit sector, focusing on Arctic data coordination and interoperability. Its business model revolves around collaboration, standards development, and data sharing facilitation rather than commercial revenue generation. The target audience includes researchers, policymakers, and Arctic stakeholders. The organization leverages partnerships such as hosting by Arctic Portal and uses Google Analytics for basic web analytics. Growth indicators include regular meetings and workshops, with a clear focus on data standards and interoperability. The lack of explicit contact details and privacy policies suggests room for improvement in stakeholder engagement and compliance. The partnership ecosystem appears limited but focused on Arctic research entities.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a basic security posture with HTTPS enabled and domain registration locks in place. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or Strict-Transport-Security reduces its defense-in-depth. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is published, which may limit transparency and responsiveness to security incidents. The use of Google Analytics without a cookie consent mechanism indicates potential GDPR compliance gaps. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected, but the overall security maturity is moderate. Enhancing security headers, enabling DNSSEC, and publishing privacy and security policies would significantly improve the security posture.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with GDPR compliance details.
  2. Implement a cookie consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations.
  3. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security.
  4. Add security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  5. Provide clear contact information including emails and phone numbers for user and security incident reporting.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Arctic Data Committee
Description
The Arctic Data Committee is a merge of the former IASC Data Standing Committee and SAON Committee on Data and Information Services.
Key services
Data interoperability standards, Federated search, Polar data products, Meetings and conferences, Workgroups on vocabularies and semantics
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Bootstrap, Joomla CMS
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
55/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited and other EPP locks

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Analytics (via gtag.js)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the site.
  3. No contact emails, phone numbers, or physical addresses explicitly listed on the homepage or navigation.
  4. Site uses Joomla CMS with Bootstrap and jQuery libraries.
  5. Google Analytics is used for tracking but no cookie consent mechanism is present.
  6. Content is focused on Arctic data coordination, meetings, and interoperability standards.
  7. No visible security headers or advanced security configurations detected.
  8. Domain is registered with GoDaddy and has standard domain locks but no DNSSEC.
  9. Site branding is consistent and professional with clear navigation and relevant content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Joomla CMS with Bootstrap and jQuery libraries, indicating a mature but somewhat dated technology stack. The site is mobile optimized and moderately performant but lacks advanced accessibility features. SEO is basic with meta keywords and descriptions but no Open Graph or JSON-LD structured data detected. Hosting appears stable with GoDaddy as registrar and Arctic Portal as host. No critical technical debt or vulnerabilities were found, but modernization opportunities include adding structured data, improving accessibility, and enhancing security configurations.
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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