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Security report for awbkoeln.de

AWB Abfallwirtschaftsbetriebe Köln GmbH · Government · Germany

High risk. 5 critical or high findings in Network security, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

49/100

Risk levelHigh

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

AWB Abfallwirtschaftsbetriebe Köln GmbH is a well-established municipal waste management company serving the Cologne region in Germany. The company provides comprehensive services including waste disposal, street cleaning, winter services, bulky waste collection, and recycling. Their market position is strong as a regional public service provider with a long tradition and certifications such as ISO 9001 and Entsorgungsfachbetrieb. The website reflects a professional and user-friendly digital presence, leveraging TYPO3 CMS and modern accessibility tools to serve a broad audience including residents and businesses in Cologne. Technical infrastructure is robust with modern frameworks and compliance with GDPR and cookie consent regulations. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforcement and cookie management, though some security headers could be explicitly confirmed. Overall, the website and business demonstrate high credibility and trustworthiness.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
100/ 100 · Low
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. 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
    • High

      High-Risk Service Exposed: FTP

      Port 21 (FTP) is publicly accessible - FTP - Often unencrypted file transfer

      What to do: Consider restricting access to FTP or implementing strong authentication

      • 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 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. 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 Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

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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
72
Security headers
50
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
100
Average
60
After the cap
49

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

The company operates in the government sector focusing on environmental and waste management services. Its business model revolves around public service delivery with a focus on sustainability and community engagement. The website indicates a large organizational size with multiple service offerings and digital tools such as an app and online scheduling. The presence of certifications and compliance pages suggests a mature operational framework. Social media and digital marketing tools are used moderately to engage the community. The company targets local residents, businesses, and municipal stakeholders, positioning itself as a key player in Cologne's waste management ecosystem.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and a comprehensive cookie consent mechanism that respects user privacy and GDPR compliance. The use of spam-protected email addresses and absence of exposed sensitive data are positive indicators. However, explicit security headers like X-Frame-Options and Content-Security-Policy are not clearly visible in the provided data and should be verified. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is publicly available, which is a potential area for improvement. Overall, the security practices align well with industry standards for a public service website.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify explicit security headers such as X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against clickjacking and MIME sniffing.
  2. Publish a dedicated incident response contact or security email address to improve transparency and readiness for security incidents.
  3. Consider adding a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure and improve trust with security researchers.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries for vulnerabilities and update them to minimize security risks.
  5. Enhance Content Security Policy (CSP) to restrict resource loading and reduce the risk of cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
AWB Abfallwirtschaftsbetriebe Köln GmbH
Description
Als Serviceunternehmen beseitigen und entsorgen wir Abfälle, die in Köln entstehen, reinigen die Straßen und kümmern uns um den Winterdienst.
Key services
Waste disposal, Street cleaning, Winter service, Container rental, Sperrmüll (bulky waste) collection, Electronics recycling, Green waste collection, Consulting and customer service
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TYPO3 CMS, jQuery, Materialize CSS, Owl Carousel, Consentmanager.net (cookie consent), Matomo Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, eyeAble accessibility tools, Conword translation service
Frameworks
TYPO3 CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with granular controls
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Spam-protected email addresses
  • Use of security-focused cookie consent manager

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Comprehensive cookie consent mechanism implemented with granular user controls.
  3. Multiple service offerings clearly presented with easy navigation.
  4. Strong compliance with GDPR and ISO 9001 quality standards.
  5. Use of modern CMS (TYPO3) and accessibility tools (eyeAble).
  6. Social media presence on Facebook and Instagram.
  7. No signs of suspicious or malicious content.
  8. Contact information is clearly provided and verified.
  9. No explicit incident response or vulnerability disclosure information found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on TYPO3 CMS, a mature and widely used content management system, indicating a stable and scalable infrastructure. It uses modern front-end libraries such as Materialize CSS and Owl Carousel for responsive design and user experience. Accessibility is enhanced by integration of eyeAble tools and multilingual support via Conword. Analytics are implemented using both Google Analytics and Matomo, balancing commercial and privacy-focused tracking. Hosting appears to be provided by Mittwald, a reputable German hosting provider. Performance is moderate with room for optimization, but overall the technical stack supports a professional and accessible web presence suitable for a large public service organization.
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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