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Security report for bottrop.de

Stadt Bottrop · Government · Germany

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

Security score

59/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Stadt Bottrop operates as the official municipal government website for the city of Bottrop, Germany. It provides comprehensive citizen services including online appointment booking, event calendars, political information, and social services. The website targets residents and citizens, offering a broad range of public sector services and information. The site is well-branded, consistent, and professionally maintained, reflecting its role as a trusted government portal. Technically, the website uses a Sitepark CMS platform with modern JavaScript libraries such as Slick Slider and TinyMCE. It integrates Matomo analytics for privacy-conscious user tracking with explicit consent mechanisms. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, ensuring good user experience across devices. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, uses cookie consent banners, and anonymizes analytics data. However, it lacks explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and security headers, which are recommended for enhanced security posture. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Overall, the website is a secure, compliant, and professional municipal portal with strong privacy practices and good user experience. Strategic improvements in security policy transparency and incident response readiness would further strengthen its trustworthiness and resilience.

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 Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • 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 bottrop.de

This scan found 18 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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Full report

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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
98
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
59

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

Stadt Bottrop holds a stable position as a local government authority serving the Bottrop community. Its business model focuses on providing public services and information digitally to residents. The website supports civic engagement through links to participation platforms and council information. Partnerships with regional tourism, education, and local business organizations indicate a collaborative ecosystem. The site’s content and services suggest a medium-sized municipal operation with a focus on accessibility and citizen convenience. Growth indicators include digital appointment booking and event promotion. The partnership ecosystem enhances service delivery and community outreach.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level. HTTPS is enforced, and privacy-respecting analytics with user consent are implemented. The absence of security headers and formal security policies indicates room for improvement. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are publicly available, which could delay response to security events. The site avoids exposing sensitive data and uses secure forms. Compliance with GDPR is evident through comprehensive privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a government portal but would benefit from enhanced transparency and technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a formal security policy and incident response plan accessible on the website.
  2. Implement and configure security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options.
  3. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Enhance user awareness by providing clear contact channels for security incidents and abuse reports.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and CMS components to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Stadt Bottrop
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Stadt Bottrop
Description
Internetseite der Stadt Bottrop mit Themen zur Stadt, Bürgerservice online, Veranstaltungskalender und Abo-Diensten.
Key services
Bürgerservice (citizen services), Event calendar, Online appointment booking, Information on politics, culture, education, environment, social services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Matomo Analytics, Sitepark CMS, TinyMCE, Slick Slider
Frameworks
SiteKit
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with opt-in for tracking
  • Anonymized tracking via Matomo
  • No exposed sensitive data detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo Analytics
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a municipal government portal for Stadt Bottrop, Germany.
  2. Content is comprehensive and well-structured with multiple citizen services.
  3. Privacy and cookie policies are present and GDPR compliant.
  4. Uses Matomo for privacy-respecting analytics with user consent.
  5. No signs of security blocking or WAF challenges.
  6. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities detected.
  7. Contact information is clearly provided including phone and physical address.
  8. No terms of service or explicit security policy documents found.
  9. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
  10. Social media presence includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, and WhatsApp channel.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Sitepark CMS platform, leveraging JavaScript libraries like Slick Slider and TinyMCE for rich user interface components. It uses Matomo for analytics, ensuring privacy compliance. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO metadata and structured data (JSON-LD) for organization and breadcrumb information. Performance is moderate, with preloading of fonts and asynchronous script loading. No major technical debt or outdated technologies were detected. Opportunities exist to improve security headers and optimize loading times further.
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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