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Security report for bfarm.de

Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte (BfArM) · Government · Germany

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte (BfArM) is a German federal government agency responsible for the regulation and oversight of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. The website serves as an authoritative source of information for healthcare professionals, pharmaceutical companies, researchers, and the general public. It offers comprehensive content on drug approval, clinical trials, pharmacovigilance, medical device regulation, and opium control. The site is well-structured with clear navigation and multilingual support, reflecting a mature digital presence. Technically, the website is built on the Government Site Builder CMS, optimized for accessibility and mobile responsiveness. It employs modern web standards including HTML5, CSS, and SVG graphics. The site uses HTTPS with a good SSL configuration and includes a cookie consent mechanism compliant with GDPR. Minimal tracking is performed via Matomo analytics, focusing on anonymous statistics. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and uses session and consent-based cookies. However, explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options are not evident in the provided data. There is no published security policy or incident response contact, which could be improved. The WHOIS data is minimal but consistent with a government-managed domain, indicating legitimacy. Overall, the website demonstrates a high level of professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance with privacy regulations. It poses low risk from a security and privacy standpoint but could enhance its security posture by publishing explicit policies and implementing additional security headers.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 100 · High
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.

    • 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

    • 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

  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

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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
77
Security headers
75
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
70

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

BfArM holds a critical position as Germany's national regulatory authority for medicines and medical devices, operating under the Federal Ministry of Health. Its business model is that of a government regulatory agency, providing oversight, approvals, and information services. The agency's key services include clinical trial regulation, pharmacovigilance, medical device oversight, and opium control. The website reflects a large, well-established organization with a comprehensive service portfolio targeting healthcare professionals, industry stakeholders, and the public. The absence of commercial advertising and the presence of official government branding reinforce its authoritative market position. The site also supports multilingual access, indicating an international outreach component. Partnerships with other government and European entities are implied through content references but not explicitly linked.

Security posture

The website exhibits a solid security foundation with enforced HTTPS and a cookie consent mechanism aligned with GDPR requirements. The use of session cookies for technical operation and optional anonymous statistics cookies shows privacy-conscious design. However, the lack of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options suggests room for improvement in mitigating common web vulnerabilities. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy is present, which limits transparency for security researchers. The absence of exposed sensitive data and the use of secure forms are positive indicators. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by adopting additional best practices and publishing incident response information.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen defense against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and scripts to avoid vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance SEO by adding Open Graph and structured data (JSON-LD) for better content sharing and indexing.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte (BfArM)
Description
Das Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte (BfArM) ist eine selbstständige Bundesoberbehörde im Geschäftsbereich des Bundesministeriums für Gesundheit.
Key services
Regulation and approval of medicines, Clinical trial oversight, Pharmacovigilance and risk management, Medical device regulation, Information services and databases, Opium and narcotics control
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Government Site Builder CMS, SVG graphics, HTML5, CSS (multiple responsive stylesheets), JavaScript (for UI toggles and cookie banner)
Frameworks
Government Site Builder
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Forms use POST method with autocomplete off

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo (implied by cookie banner text)
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official German federal government website for the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM).
  2. Comprehensive navigation covering medicines, medical devices, coding systems, opium control, organizational info, and news.
  3. Strong privacy and cookie compliance with explicit consent mechanism.
  4. No advertising or third-party marketing detected.
  5. Minimal tracking limited to anonymous statistics via Matomo.
  6. No security.txt or explicit security policy found.
  7. No exposed emails or phone numbers in the provided content; contact via form.
  8. Website uses a government-specific CMS with responsive design and accessibility features.
  9. WHOIS data minimal but consistent with government domain management.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Government Site Builder CMS, a specialized platform for German federal agencies, ensuring compliance with government standards. The use of multiple responsive CSS stylesheets and SVG graphics indicates attention to design and accessibility. Forms use POST methods with autocomplete disabled, enhancing security. The site loads moderate resources and is optimized for mobile devices. However, no advanced JavaScript frameworks or modern frontend libraries are detected, suggesting a conservative but stable technical stack. Hosting details are not explicit, but DNS points to dfn.de, a reputable German research network provider. Performance is moderate, with potential for optimization in resource loading and caching strategies.
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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