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Security report for bochum.de

Stadt Bochum · Government · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

54/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website www.bochum.de is the official digital presence of the city government of Bochum, Germany. It serves as a comprehensive portal offering citizens, businesses, and visitors access to a wide range of public services, information on politics, culture, economy, and tourism. The site is well-branded, professionally designed, and provides multiple portals for specialized services such as online appointment booking, family services, and citizen feedback mechanisms. The target audience is broad, encompassing residents, visitors, and local businesses. Technically, the site is built on the You@web CMS platform and leverages modern JavaScript libraries including jQuery 3.7.1 and Matomo for analytics, emphasizing privacy compliance. The site is mobile-optimized and includes accessibility tools such as Eye-Able, enhancing usability for diverse users. Performance is moderate, with good SEO and accessibility practices observed. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and includes a cookie consent mechanism aligned with GDPR requirements. However, explicit security headers like CSP or X-Frame-Options are not evident, and no public security policy or incident response contacts are provided. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. Overall, the website demonstrates a strong commitment to privacy, accessibility, and user experience, with minor areas for security enhancement. The domain WHOIS data is minimal but consistent with a government entity. The site is trustworthy and suitable for general audiences, with no adult or questionable content detected.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 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

5 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

  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.

    • Critical

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  3. 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"

    • 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';…

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

Keep watching bochum.de

This scan found 21 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
0
Security headers
40
Email security
75
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
54

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

Bochum.de operates as a government portal providing essential services and information to the public. Its market position is that of an authoritative city government website, offering transparency and digital access to municipal services. The business model is service-oriented, focusing on citizen engagement and administrative efficiency. Revenue streams are not applicable as it is a public service entity. The site targets residents, businesses, and tourists, supporting growth through digital transformation initiatives like the Bochum Smart City app. Partnerships include service portals and educational platforms, indicating a collaborative ecosystem. Strategic observations highlight a focus on digital accessibility, comprehensive service coverage, and community engagement.

Security posture

The security posture of the website is solid with mandatory HTTPS encryption and a cookie consent mechanism ensuring GDPR compliance. The use of Matomo analytics reflects a privacy-conscious approach to user tracking. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement in mitigating common web vulnerabilities. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is publicly available, which could be enhanced to improve transparency and readiness. No exposed credentials or sensitive data were found, and no outdated or vulnerable libraries were detected. Overall, the site maintains a good security baseline suitable for a government portal.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen defense against common attacks.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and provide incident response contact information to enhance transparency and user trust.
  3. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to prevent vulnerabilities from outdated components.
  5. Enhance HTTPS configuration by ensuring use of modern TLS versions and strong cipher suites for optimal encryption.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Stadt Bochum
Description
Die offizielle Internetpräsentation der Stadt Bochum - Stadtportal mit Informationen zu Bürgerservice, Politik, Wirtschaft, Kultur und Tourismus.
Key services
Online services, Appointment booking, Family portal, Citizen feedback (BürgerEcho), Council information (Rat und RatsTV), Tourism and events, Jobs and education information
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.7.1, Piwik/Matomo analytics, You@web CMS, GLightbox, Eye-Able accessibility tools
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo/Piwik
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo/Piwik
Marketing tools
Matomo analytics
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is official city government portal for Bochum, Germany
  2. Content is comprehensive and well structured
  3. Multiple portals and services offered online
  4. Strong branding and consistent design
  5. Good accessibility features including Eye-Able tools
  6. Cookie consent and privacy policy present and compliant
  7. No signs of WAF or blocking mechanisms
  8. Uses Matomo analytics for privacy-respecting tracking
  9. No explicit security policy or incident response info found
  10. WHOIS data is minimal but not suspicious
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the You@web CMS platform, utilizing jQuery 3.7.1 and Matomo analytics for tracking. It employs modern JavaScript polyfills and accessibility tools such as Eye-Able. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and includes SEO best practices like meta tags and structured navigation. Performance is moderate, with lazy loading of images and asynchronous script loading. The hosting provider is not explicitly identified but DNS servers indicate German infrastructure. Technical debt appears low, though security header implementation could be improved. The site architecture supports scalability and user engagement through multiple portals and interactive features.
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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