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Security report for calalerts.org

California Governor's Office of Emergency Services · Government · United States

Medium risk. 9 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 3 other checks.

Security score

50/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website calalerts.org is an official government portal managed by the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services. It provides critical information about Wireless Emergency Alerts and the Earthquake Early Warning system for residents and authorities in California. The site serves as a trusted source for emergency preparedness and alerting information, positioning itself as a key public safety resource within the state government ecosystem. The business model is non-commercial, focused on public service and information dissemination. Technically, the website employs a modern frontend stack including Bootstrap and jQuery, ensuring responsive design and good mobile optimization. The site is hosted under a domain registered with Network Solutions, LLC, with WHOIS data consistent with the official government entity. Performance is moderate, and SEO practices are adequate. However, some hidden off-screen spammy links to unrelated gambling and streaming domains were detected, which may indicate legacy or injected content that should be reviewed. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and has domain transfer protections enabled, but lacks DNSSEC and explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or Strict-Transport-Security. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies are present, which limits compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files were found, reducing transparency for security researchers. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could be improved with standard best practices. The overall risk assessment is low given the official government nature and content safety. Strategic recommendations include adding privacy and cookie policies, enabling DNSSEC, implementing security headers, and publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy to enhance trust and compliance. Addressing the hidden spammy links is also advised to maintain content integrity and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 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

9 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

  2. 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 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';…

  3. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • 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

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

Keep watching calalerts.org

This scan found 25 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
67
Security headers
65
Email security
40
DNS health
70
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
35
Average
50

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

Calalerts.org operates as a government information portal under the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services. It holds a strong market position as the official source for emergency alert information in California. The business model is public sector focused, providing free access to critical safety information. Key services include Wireless Emergency Alerts and Earthquake Early Warning information. The target audience is California residents and emergency authorities. The site benefits from official government branding and partnerships with state agencies. Growth indicators include domain longevity and consistent content updates. The presence of social media links to official accounts supports community engagement. However, the presence of hidden unrelated external links may pose reputational risks and should be addressed.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level. HTTPS is enabled, and domain transfer protections are in place, which are positive indicators. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers reduces the overall security posture. No privacy or cookie policies limit regulatory compliance, and no incident response or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are published. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. The site lacks explicit contact information for security incidents. Overall, while the site is stable and trustworthy, there is room for improvement in security best practices and compliance to reduce risk and enhance user trust.

Recommendations

  1. Implement DNSSEC to secure domain name resolution and prevent DNS spoofing.
  2. Add comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  3. Deploy security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  4. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Remove or investigate hidden off-screen spammy links to unrelated external domains to maintain content integrity.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
California Governor's Office of Emergency Services
Description
Provides information about Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) and related emergency alerting systems for the State of California.
Key services
Wireless Emergency Alerts information, Earthquake Early Warning information, Emergency preparedness resources
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Bootstrap, jQuery, scrollReveal.js
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
60/100
Good practices seen
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited set
  • Use of HTTPS implied by external scripts and favicon links

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is an official government emergency alert information portal for California.
  2. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the site.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly provided on the main pages.
  4. Some hidden spammy links to unrelated gambling and streaming sites are present in off-screen content, which may be injected or legacy content.
  5. No forms detected on the main pages; signup page exists but not analyzed here.
  6. Social media links point to official California OES accounts.
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy found.
  8. No explicit security headers detected in provided data.
  9. No DNSSEC enabled on domain.
  10. Site uses modern frontend technologies like Bootstrap and jQuery.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a standard modern frontend technology stack including Bootstrap for responsive design and jQuery for interactivity. ScrollReveal.js is used for animation effects. The site is hosted on a domain registered with Network Solutions, LLC, with WHOIS data consistent with the official government entity. Performance is moderate with no major issues detected. Mobile optimization is good, and SEO meta tags are present. However, no CMS or backend technologies were identified. The site lacks advanced security headers and DNSSEC, which are recommended for government sites. Some hidden off-screen content contains unrelated external links, which may indicate technical debt or content injection risks. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but could benefit from enhanced security and content hygiene.
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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