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Security report for austrac.gov.au

AUSTRAC · Government · Australia

Partial score · DNS & email only

63/100

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

AUSTRAC is the Australian government agency responsible for preventing, detecting, and responding to criminal abuse of the financial system, focusing on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing. The website serves as a comprehensive resource for regulated businesses, individuals, and government partners, offering guidance, compliance tools, and enforcement information. AUSTRAC holds a strong market position as the national financial intelligence unit and regulator in Australia. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10 and hosted on the GovCMS platform, reflecting a modern and government-compliant infrastructure. It integrates Google Analytics and Tag Manager for analytics, with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. The site demonstrates solid technical maturity with clear navigation and professional design. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and anonymizes IPs in analytics, but lacks explicit security headers and a public vulnerability disclosure policy. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. The WHOIS data is restricted due to auDA policies, but the domain's .gov.au status and content alignment confirm legitimacy. Overall, AUSTRAC's website is a trustworthy, well-maintained government portal with strong business credibility and good technical implementation. Strategic improvements in security headers and incident response transparency could further enhance its security posture.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
6of 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. 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. 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 austrac.gov.au

This scan found 10 issues across 5 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
0
Email security
85
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
63

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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

AUSTRAC operates as a government regulatory agency within the finance and government sectors, focusing on AML/CTF compliance. Its business model revolves around regulation, compliance monitoring, education, and enforcement. The agency targets financial institutions, designated service providers, and individuals involved in cross-border financial activities. AUSTRAC's partnerships with government and international agencies strengthen its enforcement capabilities. The website content and structure indicate a mature organization with a clear mandate and extensive stakeholder engagement. Revenue streams are government-funded, with no commercial activities. The agency's digital presence supports its regulatory mission and stakeholder communication effectively.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS and anonymized analytics tracking. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represents an area for improvement. No public incident response or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms were found, which could limit external security collaboration. The site does not expose sensitive data or use vulnerable libraries in the visible content. Compliance with privacy policies is evident, but GDPR compliance is not applicable given the Australian government context. Overall, the security maturity is good but could benefit from enhanced transparency and technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  2. Publish a security.txt file and establish a clear vulnerability disclosure policy to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  3. Enhance incident response transparency by providing dedicated security contact channels and response procedures.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and scripts to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.
  5. Improve privacy compliance disclosures, including cookie consent mechanisms aligned with international standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
AUSTRAC
Description
AUSTRAC is responsible for preventing, detecting and responding to criminal abuse of the financial system to protect the community from serious and organised crime.
Key services
AML/CTF regulation and compliance guidance, Reporting and monitoring financial transactions, Industry consultation and education, Enforcement actions and compliance reporting
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, GovCMS, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Platforms
GovCMS (Australian government hosting platform)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Anonymize IP in Google Analytics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official Australian government website for AUSTRAC
  2. Comprehensive AML/CTF regulatory guidance and resources
  3. Modern Drupal 10 CMS with GovCMS platform
  4. Good mobile and accessibility support
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. No exposed security vulnerabilities detected in HTML content
  7. Limited WHOIS data due to auDA privacy policy
  8. Social media presence on major platforms
  9. No explicit privacy or security policy pages beyond privacy and disclaimer
  10. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by Drupal 10 on the GovCMS platform, indicating a government-standard CMS environment. It uses Google Analytics and Tag Manager for tracking, with asynchronous script loading for performance. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility considerations. Performance is moderate, likely due to the comprehensive content and government hosting constraints. The site structure is well-organized with clear navigation menus and search functionality. There is no evidence of deprecated or vulnerable technologies in the HTML content. Opportunities exist to optimize security headers and enhance analytics privacy controls.
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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