Skip to main content

Security report for bildungsland.nrw

Ministerium für Schule und Bildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen · Government · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Email security, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website www.schulministerium.nrw is the official digital presence of the Ministry for Schools and Education of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It serves as a comprehensive information portal for education stakeholders including students, teachers, and parents. The site offers detailed content on school organization, education policies, legal frameworks, press releases, and various educational services. It is well-positioned as a government entity with a strong market presence in the public education sector of NRW. Technically, the website is built on Drupal CMS, leveraging modern web technologies such as Bootstrap for responsive design, Matomo for privacy-respecting analytics, and accessibility features. The site demonstrates good performance and SEO practices, with mobile optimization and clear navigation. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, respects user privacy with cookie consent mechanisms, and avoids exposing sensitive data. While explicit security headers are not fully confirmed, the overall security posture is strong with no evident vulnerabilities. The WHOIS data is privacy protected but consistent with official government use, supporting the domain's legitimacy. Overall, the website is a trustworthy, professional, and well-maintained government portal with excellent content quality and compliance with privacy regulations. It poses low risk and serves its public service mission effectively.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

5 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

    • High

      No SPF record found

      SPF helps prevent email spoofing

      What to do: Add SPF record: "v=spf1 include:_spf.yourmailprovider.com ~all"

  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

    • 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

  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 bildungsland.nrw

This scan found 24 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.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
72
Security headers
80
Email security
40
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
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

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 bildungsland.nrw, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for bildungsland.nrw 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

The Ministry for Schools and Education NRW operates as a government entity providing educational governance and information services. Its competitive advantage lies in its official status and comprehensive coverage of education topics relevant to the region. The business model is non-commercial, focused on public service and policy dissemination. The target audience includes educators, students, parents, and policy makers. Growth indicators include ongoing digital modernization and active communication channels. The ministry maintains partnerships with educational institutions and regional bodies, reflected in linked domains and collaborative projects. Strategic observations highlight a focus on digital transformation, inclusion, and quality assurance in education.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and privacy-conscious analytics implementation. Cookie consent mechanisms comply with GDPR requirements, and no sensitive data leakage is observed. However, explicit security headers like X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options are not clearly present and should be implemented to enhance protection against clickjacking and MIME sniffing. No vulnerabilities or malware indicators were found. Incident response and security policy information are not publicly disclosed, which is common for government sites but could be improved for transparency. Overall, the site balances usability and security effectively.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and explicitly declare security headers such as X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Publish a security policy or incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries to ensure they are up to date and free from vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance accessibility features further to meet highest standards and support all user groups.
  5. Maintain ongoing GDPR compliance monitoring and update cookie consent mechanisms as regulations evolve.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ministerium für Schule und Bildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
Description
Official website of the Ministry for Schools and Education of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, providing information on school organization, education topics, legal matters, press releases, and services related to education in NRW.
Key services
Information dissemination on school organization and education policies, Press releases and news updates, Educational resources and guidelines, Contact and service support for schools and education stakeholders
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal CMS, Matomo Analytics, Hyphenopoly (hyphenation library), FontAwesome icons, Modernizr
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism with opt-in/out
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Matomo with Do Not Track respected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is official government education portal for North Rhine-Westphalia
  2. Content is comprehensive, well-structured, and professionally presented
  3. Strong compliance with GDPR and cookie regulations
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity
  5. Use of modern web technologies and analytics with privacy respect
  6. WHOIS data is privacy protected but consistent with official use
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses Drupal CMS with Bootstrap framework, ensuring responsive and accessible design. It integrates Matomo analytics configured to respect Do Not Track and user consent, reflecting a privacy-first approach. The site loads multiple CSS and JS assets efficiently, though performance is moderate, suggesting room for optimization. The use of Hyphenopoly improves text hyphenation for German language content. No major technical debt or deprecated libraries were detected. Hosting details are not explicit but the domain uses HTTPS with strong SSL configuration. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a robust, user-friendly government portal.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with bildungsland.nrw. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review bildungsland.nrw.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.