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Security report for bmel.de

Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture · Government · Germany

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

65/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMLEH) operates an official government website providing comprehensive information on topics such as food and nutrition, consumer protection, farming, animal welfare, rural regions, forests, fisheries, international affairs, and digitalisation. The site targets the general public, stakeholders in agriculture and food sectors, and international partners, serving as a key communication and service platform for the ministry. The website is well-structured, professionally designed, and consistent with government branding standards. Technically, the website is built on the Government Site Builder CMS platform, utilizing modern web standards including HTML5, CSS3, and SVG graphics. It incorporates Matomo analytics for anonymous visitor statistics and implements a granular cookie consent mechanism compliant with GDPR. Mobile optimization and accessibility features are well addressed, ensuring a good user experience across devices. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS with excellent SSL configuration and includes standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security. The cookie consent banner clearly distinguishes necessary cookies from optional tracking and third-party content cookies. However, explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not present, representing areas for improvement. Overall, the website demonstrates a high level of professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance with privacy regulations. The domain appears legitimate and consistent with official government use. No WAF or content blocking was detected, allowing full content accessibility. Strategic recommendations include publishing detailed security policies, providing incident response contact channels, and establishing a vulnerability disclosure process to enhance security posture and transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
10/ 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

7 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 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: Twitter, YouTube

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

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

Keep watching bmel.de

This scan found 23 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.

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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
80
Email security
65
DNS health
55
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
10
Average
65

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 bmel.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
4
Employees
0
Customers
3
Third parties
1
Weak passwords
25%

3 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

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Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

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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's website positions it as a central authority in Germany's food and agriculture sector, offering authoritative information and public services. Its business model is that of a government entity focused on information dissemination, regulatory communication, and stakeholder engagement. The site supports multiple service areas including press relations, research, event management, and public inquiries. The presence of multilingual content (English and German) and international affairs topics indicates a broad target audience including international partners. The ministry leverages official social media channels to extend its outreach. The website's comprehensive content and structured navigation reflect a mature digital presence aligned with government standards.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, robust SSL configuration, and implementation of key security headers. The cookie consent mechanism is granular and respects user privacy, with clear distinctions between necessary and optional cookies. Use of Matomo analytics ensures anonymous data collection. However, the absence of explicit security policies, incident response information, and vulnerability disclosure channels limits transparency and preparedness for security incidents. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. The site would benefit from publishing a security policy and providing direct security contact information to improve incident response readiness and stakeholder trust.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and compliance.
  2. Provide explicit incident response contact channels such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  3. Implement and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly audit third-party integrations and tracking tools for privacy and security compliance.
  5. Enhance transparency on data retention policies and user data handling to strengthen GDPR compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
Description
Homepage of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture providing information on food, nutrition, farming, consumer protection, animals, rural regions, forests, fisheries, international affairs, and digitalisation.
Key services
Information dissemination, Public services, Press releases, Research, Event information
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Government Site Builder, Matomo Analytics, SVG graphics, HTML5, CSS3
Frameworks
Government Site Builder CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner with granular controls
  • No personal data saved in necessary cookies
  • Use of Matomo for anonymous statistics

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Transparency
excellent

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official German Federal Ministry website with English content
  2. Comprehensive navigation and content structure
  3. Strong privacy and cookie consent mechanisms
  4. Use of Matomo analytics with anonymous tracking
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in HTML content
  6. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure
  7. No signs of WAF or content blocking
  8. Social media presence on Threads, Bluesky, X, Instagram
  9. No advertising or affiliate marketing detected
  10. Website uses Government Site Builder CMS
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using the Government Site Builder CMS, a specialized platform for federal government sites in Germany. It uses modern web technologies including HTML5, CSS3, and SVG for graphics. The site includes responsive design elements and accessibility features, ensuring usability across devices and for users with disabilities. Matomo analytics is integrated for privacy-respecting visitor tracking. Performance is moderate, likely due to comprehensive content and government-standard compliance requirements. The site uses multiple CSS stylesheets for different screen sizes and includes fallback styles for older IE versions. No outdated or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. Hosting details are not explicit but DNS data indicates use of third-party name servers. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a secure, accessible, and user-friendly government website.
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. 64/100Medium32 findingsView report
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