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Security report for berenberg-us.com

Berenberg · Finance · Germany

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Berenberg is a historic and well-established financial institution founded in 1590 in Hamburg, Germany. It operates globally with a strong presence in Europe and the USA, offering a broad range of financial services including investment banking, corporate banking, asset management, and fund management. The company is positioned as a leading advisor in Europe with a large equity research team covering over 800 European companies. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies and structured data to enhance SEO and user experience. However, the berenberg-us.com domain currently lacks a valid SSL certificate and modern TLS support, which poses a significant security risk. The company demonstrates good compliance with GDPR and cookie consent regulations, and maintains a comprehensive privacy and security policy. Overall, Berenberg shows a mature digital presence but should urgently address its SSL/TLS configuration to improve security posture and trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 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

4 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Twitter, LinkedIn

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching berenberg-us.com

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
50
Security headers
80
Email security
75
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
25
Average
68

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

Berenberg's market positioning as a historic and reputable financial services provider gives it a competitive advantage in trust and expertise. Its business model focuses on serving capital market-oriented and medium-sized companies, investors, and corporate clients with tailored financial solutions. Revenue streams likely include advisory fees, asset management fees, and banking services. The company targets sophisticated clients requiring high standards and complex financial products. Its partnership ecosystem includes career portals, research domains, and document hubs, indicating a well-integrated service offering. The global office network supports its international client base and enhances market reach. Strategic observations include a strong emphasis on sustainability, social responsibility, and digital engagement through newsletters and content hubs.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is moderate with strengths in email authentication (SPF, DMARC) and cookie consent mechanisms. However, the lack of a valid SSL certificate and absence of TLS protocols on the berenberg-us.com domain are critical vulnerabilities that expose users to potential data interception and undermine trust. The absence of HSTS, OCSP stapling, and session resumption further weakens the security posture. Compliance with GDPR is evident through privacy policies and consent banners, but incident response readiness and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not clearly documented. The security culture appears to prioritize client needs and regulatory compliance but requires improvements in technical security controls and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Install and maintain a valid SSL/TLS certificate on berenberg-us.com to enable secure HTTPS connections.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and disable insecure legacy protocols to protect data in transit.
  3. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload to enforce secure connections.
  4. Enable OCSP stapling and session resumption to improve SSL performance and security.
  5. Publish a security.txt file and clearly document incident response contacts to enhance transparency and readiness.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Berenberg
Technical notes

Notes

The website infrastructure is hosted on Microsoft Azure, leveraging modern JavaScript frameworks and libraries such as Glide.js and HTMX for interactive UI components. The use of JSON-LD structured data and Open Graph tags indicates a focus on SEO and social media integration. Performance is moderate with a page load time of approximately 4.3 seconds and 47 resources loaded. Mobile optimization and accessibility are good, with responsive images and ARIA attributes. Technical debt is minimal, but the lack of SSL/TLS security is a significant risk. Modernization opportunities include improving SSL configuration, enhancing security headers, and expanding analytics and marketing tools with privacy considerations.
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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