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Security report for aucegypt.edu

The American University in Cairo · Education · Egypt

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

79/100

Risk levelLow

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

The American University in Cairo (AUC) is a prestigious private liberal arts university located in Egypt, offering a broad range of undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. It holds a strong market position as a leading U.S.-accredited institution in the Middle East, serving a diverse audience including students, faculty, and researchers. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive academic and community content, supporting its educational mission. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries such as Plyr and Splide for media and UI components. It integrates multiple analytics and tracking tools including Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Crazy Egg, and Microsoft Clarity, indicating a focus on user experience and data-driven improvements. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, with a professional design and clear navigation. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and employs secure form handling consistent with Drupal standards. While explicit security headers are not fully visible in the provided data, no critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy compliance is supported by a comprehensive privacy and cookie policy with consent mechanisms, aligning with GDPR requirements. Overall, the risk profile is low with strong business credibility and technical maturity. The absence of WHOIS data is noted but likely due to .edu domain registry policies rather than malicious intent. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security header implementation, establishing a public vulnerability disclosure policy, and continuous monitoring of third-party scripts to maintain security posture.

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

3 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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

  2. 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.

    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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Keep watching aucegypt.edu

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
75
Security headers
75
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
79

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

AUC operates as a large educational institution focused on liberal arts and professional education in Egypt and the Middle East. Its business model centers on tuition-based degree programs and research initiatives. The university maintains partnerships with application processing services and hosts multiple subdomains for academic and administrative functions. The website content and structure indicate a well-established brand with consistent messaging and strong trust signals such as accreditation and testimonials. Growth indicators include active news, events, and research sections, reflecting ongoing engagement with its community and stakeholders.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and secure form handling. No critical security headers were explicitly detected, suggesting room for improvement in CSP, X-Frame-Options, and related headers. The use of multiple third-party analytics and tracking services introduces potential risk vectors that require regular auditing. No incident response or security policy pages were found, indicating a potential gap in transparency and readiness. Overall, the site maintains a secure baseline appropriate for an educational institution but should enhance its security documentation and header policies.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a clear vulnerability disclosure and incident response policy to improve transparency and security culture.
  3. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and analytics tools to mitigate supply chain risks.
  4. Enhance privacy compliance by detailing data retention policies and user rights explicitly on the website.
  5. Maintain consistent WHOIS data availability or provide official domain registration information to improve trust.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
The American University in Cairo
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The American University in Cairo
Description
The American University in Cairo is Egypt's prestigious private English-language university, offering liberal arts education in the heart of the Middle East. AUC provides undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs in fields of business, humanities, social sciences, engineering and global affairs, combining academic excellence, research, and vibrant student life.
Key services
Undergraduate programs, Graduate programs, Professional programs, Research centers, Student life services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Plyr video player, Splide.js slider, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Crazy Egg, Microsoft icon favicon
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with CSRF tokens (implied by Drupal)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Crazy Egg
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Crazy Egg
Tracking pixels
Microsoft Clarity
Marketing tools
Crazy Egg, Microsoft Clarity
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well maintained
  2. Content is rich, relevant, and updated with recent news and events
  3. Multiple internal and external resources linked with consistent branding
  4. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools
  5. No signs of blocking or WAF challenges
  6. WHOIS data unavailable, which is unusual but not necessarily suspicious for .edu domains
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern Drupal 10 CMS platform, utilizing JavaScript libraries such as Plyr for video playback and Splide for sliders, ensuring a rich interactive user experience. It integrates multiple analytics and marketing tools, including Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Crazy Egg, and Microsoft Clarity, indicating a mature approach to user behavior analysis. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in loading speed by optimizing third-party scripts and images. The technical infrastructure supports a large, content-rich educational website with multiple subdomains and resource portals.
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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