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Security report for arpa-h.gov

Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) · Healthcare · United States

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

62/100

Risk levelMedium

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

ARPA-H is a U.S. government research funding agency established in 2022 focused on transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs. The agency supports high-impact projects ranging from molecular to societal health solutions. The website reflects a professional government presence with clear branding, comprehensive content, and a focus on funding opportunities and partnerships. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 with modern web standards, mobile optimization, and accessibility compliance. Security posture is strong with HTTPS, domain transfer protection, and a linked vulnerability disclosure policy, though DNSSEC is not enabled and some security headers are not explicitly detected. Privacy compliance is partial with a comprehensive privacy policy but no cookie consent mechanism. Contact information is limited to a subscription form and social media links, with no direct emails or phone numbers publicly listed. Overall, the site is trustworthy, well-maintained, and aligned with its government mission.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • Critical

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  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 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';…

  3. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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 arpa-h.gov

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.

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
0
Security headers
55
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
62

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

ARPA-H operates as a federal government agency under HHS, targeting biomedical researchers, innovators, and small businesses in health technology. Its business model is government-funded research facilitation, positioning itself as a catalyst for breakthrough health technologies. The agency emphasizes partnerships, funding programs, and commercialization support. The website's content and structure support transparency and engagement with stakeholders. The presence of testimonials and official .gov branding enhance credibility. The agency is relatively new, founded in 2022, and is growing its market presence in the health research sector.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, domain transfer lock, and a publicly linked vulnerability disclosure policy hosted on the HHS domain. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, and explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options are not evident in the provided data. Incident response contact details are not published on the site. The use of reputable analytics and marketing tools is balanced with privacy considerations, though cookie consent is absent. Overall, the security posture is strong but could be improved with additional headers, DNSSEC, and clearer incident response contacts.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and display a cookie consent mechanism to improve privacy compliance.
  3. Add explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  4. Publish clear incident response contact information or security@ email addresses for vulnerability reporting.
  5. Consider adding a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)
Description
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is a research funding agency that supports transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs ranging from molecular to societal levels to provide transformative health solutions for all.
Key services
Funding transformative biomedical research, Supporting breakthrough technologies and platforms, Partnering with small businesses and research communities, Hosting funding opportunities and initiatives
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Swiper.js, USWDS (U.S. Web Design System), Google Custom Search Engine
Frameworks
Drupal CMS, USWDS
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Server transfer lock on domain
  • Vulnerability disclosure policy linked
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Digital Analytics Program (DAP)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Digital Analytics Program (dap.digitalgov.gov)
Marketing tools
HubSpot Forms
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official U.S. government health research agency website
  2. Clear and consistent branding with US government standards
  3. Comprehensive content about agency mission, programs, and funding
  4. Modern, accessible, and mobile-optimized website
  5. Use of reputable third-party analytics and marketing tools
  6. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity
  7. Privacy policy present but no explicit cookie consent mechanism
  8. No direct contact emails or phone numbers publicly listed
  9. Vulnerability disclosure policy linked to HHS site
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 CMS, leveraging USWDS for design consistency with U.S. government standards. It uses modern JavaScript libraries like Swiper.js for UI components and integrates Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for tracking. Hosting is via Akamai CDN as indicated by nameservers, supporting performance and availability. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO meta tags and Open Graph data. Performance is moderate, likely due to rich media content and third-party scripts. No technical debt or deprecated technologies were detected. Opportunities exist to enhance security headers and DNSSEC for improved resilience.
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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