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Security report for arcticsix.org

Arctic Six · Education · N/a

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Email security and GDPR outside view.

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Arctic Six is a consortium of Nordic universities dedicated to advancing knowledge, education, and innovation for sustainable development in the Arctic region. The alliance represents a significant research and educational infrastructure in the European Arctic, targeting researchers, students, and stakeholders interested in Arctic issues. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand identity with clear navigation and relevant content focused on research, education, and events. Technically, the site is built on the SiteVision CMS platform using React 17 and integrates Piwik PRO for analytics. It is mobile-optimized, accessible, and uses HTTPS with no visible security vulnerabilities. However, the absence of explicit privacy, cookie, and terms of service policies, as well as missing contact information, limits its privacy compliance and user trust. Security posture is generally strong with HTTPS and no exposed sensitive data, but the lack of security headers and incident response contacts suggests room for improvement. The missing WHOIS data reduces domain trustworthiness, though the website content and social media presence support legitimacy. Overall, Arctic Six presents a credible educational alliance website with good technical implementation but requires enhancements in privacy compliance, security transparency, and domain registration transparency to improve trust and compliance.

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

5 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. 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Facebook, LinkedIn

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

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

Keep watching arcticsix.org

This scan found 17 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
100
Security headers
90
Email security
60
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
74

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

Arctic Six occupies a leading position as a Nordic university alliance focused on Arctic research and education. Its business model centers on collaboration and knowledge sharing among member universities, targeting academic and regional stakeholders. The alliance leverages its extensive research infrastructure and student base to drive innovation and sustainable development in the Arctic. The website supports this positioning with news, events, and organizational information, though it lacks detailed business or financial disclosures. Partnerships appear limited to academic institutions, with no evident commercial subsidiaries or payment processors. Growth indicators include active news updates and event listings, signaling ongoing engagement within the academic community.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to strong security posture with enforced HTTPS and no visible exposure of sensitive data or vulnerable libraries. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options reduces protection against common web attacks. No explicit security policies or incident response contacts are published, limiting transparency and readiness for security incidents. The lack of a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file further constrains responsible vulnerability management. Compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Overall, while technical security is adequate, governance and compliance aspects require significant improvement.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies clearly accessible on the website.
  2. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Provide clear contact information for general inquiries and security incident reporting.
  4. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible security communication.
  5. Verify and publish domain WHOIS information to enhance domain trust and legitimacy.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Arctic Six
Description
The Arctic Six is an alliance of Nordic universities to advance and share knowledge, education and innovations for the development of the shared Arctic region and a sustainable Arctic.
Key services
Research collaboration, Educational programs, Innovation sharing, Events and conferences
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, React 17, SiteVision CMS, Piwik PRO Analytics
Frameworks
React
Platforms
SiteVision CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Piwik PRO
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Piwik PRO
Marketing tools
Piwik PRO Analytics
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 no blocking or WAF detected.
  2. WHOIS data is unavailable or inaccessible, limiting domain trust analysis.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the site.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers are published on the site.
  5. Social media presence includes Facebook and LinkedIn official pages.
  6. Site uses SiteVision CMS and React framework with Piwik PRO analytics.
  7. HTTPS is enforced with no visible security issues in the HTML content.
  8. Content is relevant and professionally presented for an educational alliance.
  9. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information is provided.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technology stack including SiteVision CMS and React 17, ensuring a responsive and accessible user experience. Piwik PRO analytics is used for user tracking with moderate tracking levels. The site loads with moderate performance and includes proper meta tags for SEO. However, the absence of security headers and privacy-related pages indicates technical debt in compliance and security governance. Hosting provider details are not disclosed, limiting infrastructure transparency. Overall, the technical implementation supports the business goals but requires enhancements in security and privacy features to reduce risks and improve 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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