Skip to main content

Security report for barcelona.cat

Ajuntament de Barcelona · Government · Spain

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and SSL/TLS.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Ajuntament de Barcelona operates the official municipal website for the city of Barcelona, providing residents and visitors with comprehensive information about city services, news, cultural events, transport, and business resources. The website is positioned as a key digital gateway for public services and community engagement in Barcelona. The site targets a broad audience including residents, businesses, and tourists, offering multilingual support and extensive navigation options. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 with modern frontend frameworks like Bootstrap, and integrates multiple analytics platforms including Matomo and Plausible, alongside marketing and tracking tools such as Adobe Visitor Tracking and Google Analytics. The site demonstrates a mature digital infrastructure with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and anti-CSRF protections evident, though explicit security headers are not visible in the provided content and should be verified. Privacy compliance is well addressed with a detailed cookie consent mechanism and granular cookie categorization, although no explicit privacy policy or terms of service URLs were found in the provided content. WHOIS data is privacy protected by puntCAT, which is typical for government domains under the .cat TLD, and does not raise legitimacy concerns. Overall, the website is a professional, secure, and trustworthy government portal with extensive content and good user experience.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
95/ 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

3 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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';…
  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 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

Keep watching barcelona.cat

This scan found 22 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.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
40
Email security
60
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
95
Average
72

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention barcelona.cat, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
823
Employees
0
Customers
768
Third parties
55
Weak passwords
34%

30 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for barcelona.cat.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The website serves as the official digital presence of the Barcelona city government, positioning itself as a comprehensive information hub for municipal services and community engagement. Its business model is public service oriented, funded and operated by the government, focusing on transparency, accessibility, and citizen engagement. The site leverages partnerships with various city-related domains and third-party service providers for analytics and content delivery. The extensive use of tracking and marketing cookies indicates a balance between user experience and data-driven insights, with user consent mechanisms in place. The site’s multilingual support and detailed navigation structure reflect a mature approach to serving diverse user segments. Growth indicators include continuous updates and integration of new digital services. The partnership ecosystem includes analytics providers, content delivery networks, and marketing platforms, supporting a robust digital presence.

Security posture

The website exhibits a strong security posture with mandatory HTTPS usage and anti-CSRF tokens to protect user sessions. The presence of multiple cookies related to session management and bot detection indicates active security measures. However, the absence of visible security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options in the provided HTML content suggests room for improvement. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. The cookie consent mechanism is comprehensive, supporting GDPR compliance. Incident response and security policy information are not explicitly provided, which could be enhanced to improve transparency and readiness. Overall, the site demonstrates good security maturity appropriate for a government portal but should consider adding explicit security headers and incident response contacts.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish explicit privacy policy and terms of service pages with clear URLs accessible from the homepage to improve transparency and compliance.
  3. Provide visible contact information for data protection officer and incident response team to support GDPR and security best practices.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and cookies to ensure no outdated or vulnerable components are used.
  5. Enhance security culture by publishing security policies and encouraging user awareness about data protection and privacy.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ajuntament de Barcelona
Description
Informació pràctica per viure a la ciutat de Barcelona: notícies, activitats, serveis, feina, transport, empresa, oci, plànol, innovació i molt més.
Key services
City news and updates, Public services information, Transport and mobility planning, Employment and business resources, Cultural and leisure activities, City maps and guides
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Bootstrap 4.2.1, Cookiebot, Matomo Analytics, Plausible Analytics, Cloudflare services (implied by cookies)
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with granular categories
  • Use of anti-CSRF tokens (XSRF-TOKEN cookie)
  • Session management cookies with appropriate scope

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo, Plausible, Google Analytics, Mixcloud Analytics, Spotify Analytics
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Adobe Inc., Google, Meta Platforms, Inc., TikTok, ID5
Tracking pixels
Cookiebot, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Mixcloud, Spotify
Marketing tools
Adobe Visitor Tracking, Google Ads Conversion Tracking, Facebook Pixel, TikTok Pixel
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official municipal government website for Barcelona city.
  2. Comprehensive cookie consent and privacy mechanisms implemented.
  3. Extensive use of third-party analytics and marketing cookies with user consent.
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML content provided.
  5. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service URLs detected in the provided content.
  6. Website uses modern CMS (Drupal 10) and frameworks (Bootstrap).
  7. No security headers explicitly detected in the HTML content; recommend verification.
  8. No WHOIS registrant data available due to privacy protection by puntCAT.
  9. No signs of WAF or content blocking; full content accessible.
  10. No adult or questionable content detected; safe for general audience.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern and robust technical stack centered on Drupal 10 CMS, supported by Bootstrap for responsive design. It integrates multiple analytics platforms including Matomo and Plausible, alongside marketing and tracking tools from Adobe, Google, Facebook, TikTok, and others. The site uses advanced cookie management via Cookiebot, offering granular user consent options. Performance is moderate, likely due to the extensive use of third-party scripts and analytics. Mobile optimization and accessibility are excellent, reflecting adherence to modern web standards. The site could benefit from explicit security headers and further optimization to improve loading speed. Hosting provider details are not explicitly found but Cloudflare services are implied by cookies. Overall, the technical infrastructure is mature and well-maintained, supporting a high-quality user experience.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 71/100Medium29 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with barcelona.cat. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review barcelona.cat.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.