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Security report for ascq.org

Association de Sécurité Civile du Québec (ASCQ) · Government · Canada

High risk. 10 critical or high findings in Network security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

42/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The Association de Sécurité Civile du Québec (ASCQ) is a prominent non-profit organization dedicated to civil security and emergency preparedness in Quebec. It serves a diverse audience including practitioners, managers, professionals, volunteers, and risk generators. The ASCQ provides certifications, organizes training, webinars, and events, and disseminates best practices and information to enhance resilience across the province. The website reflects a well-established entity with a clear mission and strong community engagement. Technically, the website is built on WordPress using modern plugins such as Smart Slider 3, Contact Form 7, and Complianz GDPR for cookie consent management. The site is mobile-optimized, uses HTTPS, and integrates Google Analytics for visitor insights. While performance is moderate, the site maintains good SEO and accessibility standards. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and cookie consent but lacks explicit security headers and incident response information. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. The WHOIS data is unavailable or privacy protected, which is typical for non-profit organizations and does not raise immediate concerns. Overall, the ASCQ website presents a professional, trustworthy, and compliant digital presence suitable for its sector. Strategic improvements in security headers and incident response transparency could further enhance its security posture.

Scanned

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

10 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: MySQL

      Port 3306 (MySQL) is publicly accessible - MySQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to MySQL using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

  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
    • 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';…

  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

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

Keep watching ascq.org

This scan found 29 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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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
52
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
50
Average
42

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 · found on this site
  • 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

ASCQ holds a strong market position as the leading civil security association in Quebec, targeting a specialized audience involved in emergency management and risk mitigation. Its business model revolves around membership services, certifications, training, and knowledge dissemination. The organization leverages partnerships and digital platforms for event management and member engagement. The presence of active social media channels and a comprehensive content archive indicates sustained growth and community involvement. Revenue streams likely include membership fees, event registrations, and certification programs. The organization’s focus on professional standards and resilience positions it competitively within the government and non-profit sectors.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and GDPR-compliant cookie consent mechanisms in place. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement. No visible vulnerabilities or sensitive data exposures were found. The lack of published incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies indicates a potential gap in security transparency and readiness. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a non-profit organization but would benefit from enhanced security controls and documented response procedures to mitigate risks and build stakeholder trust.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Publish an incident response policy and contact information to improve transparency and readiness for security events.
  3. Regularly audit and update third-party plugins and themes to minimize vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to comply with WCAG standards and improve user experience for all visitors.
  5. Consider creating and publishing a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Association de Sécurité Civile du Québec (ASCQ)
Description
L’ASCQ rassemble les praticiens, gestionnaires, professionnels et bénévoles, ainsi que les représentants de générateurs de risques de tout type. Elle organise le partage des meilleures pratiques, elle fournit de l’information, émet des certifications et elle offre sa perspective en matière de résilience.
Key services
certifications, information sharing, training and webinars, events organization, publications and reports
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, PHP, jQuery, Bootstrap, Smart Slider 3, Contact Form 7, Events Manager, Complianz GDPR, Google Analytics
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
Complianz GDPR Cookie Consent
Transparency
good

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 language.
  2. Strong focus on civil security and emergency preparedness in Quebec.
  3. Comprehensive cookie and privacy consent mechanisms implemented.
  4. Multiple social media channels linked and active.
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  6. WHOIS data unavailable, but no red flags from website content.
  7. Use of modern WordPress plugins and technologies.
  8. No explicit security.txt or incident response info found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform with a modern tech stack including Bootstrap for responsive design and jQuery for interactivity. It uses several well-known plugins such as Smart Slider 3 for visual content, Contact Form 7 for forms, Events Manager for event handling, and Complianz GDPR for privacy compliance. The site loads external resources from trusted domains like Google Fonts and Google Analytics. Performance is moderate with some room for optimization. The site is mobile-friendly and SEO-optimized with proper meta tags and structured navigation. No critical technical debt or deprecated technologies were detected, indicating a well-maintained infrastructure.
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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