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Security report for bfh.ch

Bern University of Applied Sciences · Education · Switzerland

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

53/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH) is a leading public higher education institution in Switzerland offering a wide range of bachelor's and master's degree programs, continuing education, and research services. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand presence targeting students, researchers, and professionals seeking applied sciences education and consulting. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager, OneTrust for cookie consent, and Monsido for accessibility and analytics, but suffers from poor SSL/TLS configuration and slow performance. Security posture is weak due to lack of valid HTTPS, missing security headers, and no HSTS, exposing users to potential risks. Privacy compliance is basic with cookie consent implemented but no explicit GDPR compliance statements. Overall, the site is functional and credible but requires urgent security improvements to protect users and enhance trust.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of bfh.ch. View the latest report

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

5 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  2. 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: Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube

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

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

Keep watching bfh.ch

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
50
Security headers
60
Email security
50
DNS health
90
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
25
Average
53

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

BFH operates in the education sector with a strong market position in the Bern region. Its business model focuses on delivering academic programs and applied research with a broad target audience including students and continuing education participants. The institution maintains partnerships with Swissuniversities and holds EFQM membership and HEdA accreditation, signaling quality and trust. The website supports multiple languages and integrates social media channels to engage its community. Revenue streams likely include tuition, research grants, and consulting services. Growth indicators include active event promotion and international collaborations. The digital presence is mature but could benefit from improved technical infrastructure and security.

Security posture

The current security maturity level is low due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support, which is a critical vulnerability. The site lacks essential security headers and modern TLS protocols, and does not implement HSTS or OCSP stapling. No incident response or security policy information is publicly available, indicating potential gaps in security governance. While no active vulnerabilities like Heartbleed or POODLE were detected, the missing HTTPS exposes all data transmissions to interception. Compliance with GDPR is not clearly demonstrated. The institution should prioritize securing its web infrastructure and publishing security policies to improve its security culture and readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site immediately.
  2. Implement security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security with preload and includeSubDomains.
  3. Fix DNS CAA records to valid entries to control certificate issuance.
  4. Publish clear security and incident response policies including contact channels for reporting issues.
  5. Optimize website performance to reduce load times and improve user experience.
  6. Enhance privacy compliance by providing detailed GDPR statements and data retention policies.
  7. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to avoid vulnerabilities.
  8. Increase transparency by listing data protection officer contact information and vulnerability disclosure procedures.
Technical notes

Notes

The website infrastructure is based on a custom or enterprise CMS with Bootstrap framework and uses several third-party scripts for analytics, cookie consent, and accessibility. DNS configuration is standard but lacks DNSSEC and has malformed CAA records. SSL/TLS is not properly configured, with no valid certificate and no TLS protocols enabled, severely impacting security. Performance is poor with a load time exceeding 22 seconds and a large page size (~1.9MB). The site is mobile optimized and accessible with good SEO metadata and structured navigation. Hosting provider details are not explicitly identified. Technical debt is evident in security and performance areas, representing risks to business continuity and user trust.
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. 63/100Medium28 findingsView report
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