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Security report for bbmri-eric.eu

BBMRI-ERIC · Healthcare · Austria

High risk. 10 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

33/100

Risk levelHigh

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

BBMRI-ERIC is a European research infrastructure focused on biobanking and biomolecular resources, supporting researchers in health and life sciences to find new treatments. Established in 2013 and headquartered in Graz, Austria, it provides a range of services including a directory of biobank metadata, federated platforms for privacy-preserving data queries, and quality management. The website reflects a mature organization with consistent branding and professional content aimed at the scientific community. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with a variety of plugins supporting SEO, newsletter management, and social media integration. However, the site lacks HTTPS and a valid SSL certificate, which is a critical security vulnerability. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is trustworthy but requires urgent security improvements to protect user data and maintain credibility.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 100 · Critical
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. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

  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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. 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"

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

Keep watching bbmri-eric.eu

This scan found 19 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

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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
Security headers
15
Email security
50
DNS health
90
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
0
Average
33

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

BBMRI-ERIC holds a strong position as a European-wide non-profit research infrastructure, collaborating with multiple member states and partners. Its business model centers on providing access to high-quality biobank samples and data, supported by IT services and ethical/legal frameworks. The organization leverages EU funding and partnerships to maintain and expand its services. The website's content and structure indicate a focus on transparency, community engagement, and scientific collaboration. Growth indicators include active news updates, events, and multiple ongoing scientific collaborations. The presence of a podcast and social media channels supports outreach and knowledge dissemination.

Security posture

The current security posture is weak due to the absence of HTTPS and an invalid SSL certificate, exposing users to potential data interception risks. The lack of HSTS and OCSP stapling further weakens the security stance. While cookies are set securely and consent is obtained, the overall transport security is inadequate. No explicit security policy or incident response information is provided, which limits transparency in security governance. The site does not expose known vulnerabilities or sensitive data but must prioritize implementing TLS and modern security headers to improve protection and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a valid SSL/TLS certificate and enforce HTTPS site-wide immediately.
  2. Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload directives.
  3. Configure OCSP stapling to improve certificate status verification performance and security.
  4. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection.
  5. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to enhance trust.
  6. Regularly audit and update all plugins and server software to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  7. Improve performance monitoring and optimize page load times.
  8. Enhance accessibility features to meet higher standards.
  9. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file.
  10. Maintain transparency on data retention policies and user privacy.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Technical notes

Notes

The website runs on a Debian-based Apache 2.4.25 server with WordPress 6.8.1 CMS. It uses common web technologies including jQuery, Yoast SEO, Mailchimp integration, and custom plugins for Twitter feeds and podcasting. The site is mobile responsive with good SEO metadata and structured data (JSON-LD) for enhanced search engine understanding. However, performance metrics are missing, indicating a need for better monitoring. The absence of HTTPS and TLS support is a major technical risk. DNS records are mostly well configured, though DNSSEC is not enabled and CAA records appear malformed. The site uses secure cookies but lacks advanced session management features. Overall, the technical infrastructure is functional but requires modernization and security hardening.
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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