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Security report for biel-bienne.ch

City of Biel/Bienne · Government · Switzerland

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

85/100

Risk levelLow

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

The City of Biel/Bienne's official website serves as a comprehensive digital portal providing residents, businesses, and tourists with essential information about the city's services, events, tourism, and administration. The site is multilingual, supporting German, French, English, and an Easy Read version, reflecting the city's bilingual nature and commitment to accessibility. The business model is that of a government municipal service, positioning itself as the authoritative source for city-related information and services. Technically, the website employs a modern tech stack including jQuery, jQuery UI, Flickity, FancyBox, and a proprietary govis CMS framework. It demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices. The site uses a robust cookie consent mechanism compliant with GDPR, and analytics are handled via Matomo, indicating a privacy-conscious approach. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and employs cookie consent with categorized cookies. However, it lacks explicit security headers and a published incident response or vulnerability disclosure policy. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The WHOIS data aligns with the website's government identity, enhancing trustworthiness. Overall, the website presents a low-risk profile with strong business credibility and good privacy compliance. Strategic improvements include implementing security headers, publishing an incident response policy, and adding a vulnerability disclosure mechanism to further enhance security posture and transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 100 · Medium
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 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. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

  3. 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 biel-bienne.ch

This scan found 13 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.

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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
98
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
85

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

The City of Biel/Bienne operates as a government entity providing municipal services and information through its website. Its market position is that of the official city portal, serving a diverse audience including residents, tourists, and businesses. The site supports economic promotion, tourism, and online administrative services, indicating multiple revenue-neutral service streams typical of government operations. The bilingual and accessible content reflects a strategic focus on inclusivity and broad community engagement. The presence of social media channels suggests active community outreach. No parent or subsidiary companies are indicated, consistent with a municipal government structure.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and a comprehensive cookie consent mechanism that categorizes cookies and respects user preferences, aligning with GDPR requirements. The absence of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represents an area for improvement. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is publicly available, which could hinder rapid response to security incidents. The use of reputable third-party libraries and deferred script loading reduces risk exposure. Overall, the site maintains a secure environment suitable for a government portal but would benefit from enhanced security transparency and header implementation.

Recommendations

  1. Implement HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Publish an incident response policy and provide a dedicated security contact email to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Establish and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries to minimize risks from known vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance monitoring and logging capabilities to detect and respond to potential security incidents promptly.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
City of Biel/Bienne
Description
Official website of the City of Biel/Bienne providing information about the city, its administration, services, tourism, events, and business opportunities.
Key services
City information, Tourism, Business assistance, Online services, Event information, Politics and administration
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.7.1, jQuery UI 1.13.2, Flickity 2.3.0, FancyBox 3.5.7, LazyLoad 2.0.0rc2, SparkMD5 3.0.2, LocalStorage 1.0.1, FA Submit Spinner 1.0.4, govis cookie consent 3.1.0
Frameworks
govis CMS framework
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with categories
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of deferred and async scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo (piwiknew.biel-bienne.ch)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official municipal website with multilingual support (DE, FR, EN, Easy Read).
  2. Comprehensive cookie consent mechanism implemented.
  3. Use of modern JavaScript libraries and CMS framework.
  4. Clear navigation with main topics and online services.
  5. Presence of social media links for official city accounts.
  6. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  7. Good privacy and legal compliance with accessible policies.
  8. No direct phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  9. Email contact provided for webmaster/info.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the govis CMS framework and leverages modern JavaScript libraries such as jQuery 3.7.1, jQuery UI, Flickity, and FancyBox for UI components and interactivity. It uses Matomo for analytics, indicating a preference for privacy-friendly tools. The site employs lazy loading for images and deferred script loading to optimize performance. Mobile optimization and accessibility are well addressed, with ARIA roles and keyboard navigation support. SEO is supported by proper meta tags, Open Graph tags, and JSON-LD structured data. The site performance is moderate, with room for improvement in hosting and caching strategies. No hosting provider details were identified from the HTML content.
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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