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Security report for bigbrotherawards.nl

Bits of Freedom · Non-profit · Netherlands

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

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Bits of Freedom is a Dutch non-profit organization dedicated to protecting internet freedom, communication rights, and privacy. The website prominently features the Big Brother Awards 2024 campaign, highlighting their advocacy work and engagement with the public through awards, reports, and calls for donations. The organization targets Dutch-speaking internet users and privacy advocates, positioning itself as a leading digital rights group in the Netherlands. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with a modern tech stack including WooCommerce for donations, MailPoet for newsletters, and Matomo for analytics. The site is well-structured, mobile-optimized, and uses HTTPS with good security practices, though it lacks some security headers and explicit cookie consent mechanisms. No critical vulnerabilities or suspicious content were detected. Overall, the site demonstrates a mature digital presence suitable for a small non-profit advocacy group.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
33/ 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 SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching bigbrotherawards.nl

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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
65
Security headers
80
Email security
75
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
33
Average
71

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention bigbrotherawards.nl, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for bigbrotherawards.nl right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Bits of Freedom operates as a non-profit advocacy organization focusing on digital rights and privacy. Their business model relies on donations and supporter engagement, facilitated through an integrated e-commerce and donation platform. The organization maintains a strong brand identity and consistent messaging across campaigns and social media. Their market position is that of a trusted leader in Dutch digital rights activism, with a clear target audience of privacy-conscious individuals and civil society. The presence of a dedicated donation subdomain indicates a structured supporter management system. The organization leverages partnerships and social media to amplify its reach and impact.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses secure forms for donations and newsletter signups. It employs Matomo analytics, which is privacy-friendly compared to mainstream trackers. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options reduces the overall security posture. There is no visible incident response or security contact information, nor a published security.txt file. The site does not implement a cookie consent banner, which is relevant for GDPR compliance. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. Overall, the security posture is good but could be improved with additional headers and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Add a clear cookie consent mechanism to comply fully with GDPR requirements and improve user privacy transparency.
  3. Publish incident response and security contact information to facilitate vulnerability reporting and improve trust.
  4. Consider creating and hosting a security.txt file to formalize vulnerability disclosure policies.
  5. Regularly audit third-party plugins and scripts to ensure no vulnerable libraries are included and maintain up-to-date software.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Bits of Freedom
Description
Bits of Freedom is a non-profit organization advocating for internet freedom by protecting online fundamental rights such as communication freedom and privacy.
Key services
Organizing awareness campaigns like Big Brother Awards, Advocacy for privacy and communication freedom, Publishing reports and educational content
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, WooCommerce, jQuery, Easy Video Player, MailPoet, Woo Donations, Foundation Sites, LazySizes
Frameworks
Foundation
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure forms with validation

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo (piwik.js)
Marketing tools
MailPoet
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a well-maintained non-profit advocacy site focused on digital rights.
  2. Content is in Dutch with clear calls to action for donations and newsletter signups.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and CMS (WordPress).
  5. Social media presence on Mastodon, Bluesky, Instagram, LinkedIn.
  6. No direct company contact emails or phone numbers found in the content.
  7. No explicit cookie consent mechanism detected despite GDPR relevance.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress, utilizing WooCommerce for e-commerce and donation functionalities, MailPoet for email marketing, and Matomo for analytics. It uses the Foundation framework for responsive design and lazy loading for images to optimize performance. The site loads scripts asynchronously and defers non-critical JavaScript to improve page speed. The HTML is valid and well-structured with appropriate meta tags for SEO and social sharing (Open Graph and Twitter Cards). The site is mobile-optimized and accessible at a basic level. Hosting provider details are not explicitly found. Performance is moderate with room for improvement in accessibility and security headers.
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. 71/100Medium26 findingsView report
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