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Security report for catholiccharitiesdm.org

Catholic Charities of Des Moines · Non-profit · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

59/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Catholic Charities of Des Moines is a well-established non-profit organization dedicated to serving individuals and families in need across southwest Iowa. With a history dating back to 1924 and over one million people helped, the organization offers a range of services including community resource coordination, counseling, emergency shelter, and food pantry support. Their mission is inclusive, serving people regardless of religion or demographic, and they maintain partnerships with local civic and religious entities to enhance their impact. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand presence with good content quality and clear navigation, targeting donors, volunteers, and those seeking assistance. Technically, the website is built on WordPress and leverages modern web technologies such as jQuery, Slick Carousel, and a CDN for content delivery. However, performance is currently slow with a high load time and large page size. Mobile optimization is good, and SEO practices are adequately implemented. Accessibility features are basic but present. From a security perspective, the site lacks a valid SSL certificate and does not enforce HTTPS, which is a critical vulnerability. No modern TLS protocols or security headers are enabled, and there is no evidence of advanced security frameworks or incident response policies. Privacy compliance is partial, with a privacy policy present but no cookie consent mechanism or GDPR compliance indicators. Business credibility is strong with clear contact information, social media presence, and trust signals such as COA accreditation. Overall, the site is functional and credible but requires urgent security improvements, especially regarding SSL/TLS implementation and security headers, to protect user data and enhance trust. Performance optimization and privacy compliance enhancements would further strengthen the website's digital maturity and user confidence.

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. 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 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';…

  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

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

Keep watching catholiccharitiesdm.org

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

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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
50
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
75
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

Catholic Charities of Des Moines operates as a regional non-profit with a focus on social services and community support. Their market position is solidified by a long operational history and extensive service reach across 23 counties. The organization relies on donations, volunteer engagement, and partnerships with local institutions such as the Diocese of Des Moines. Their business model centers on charitable service delivery rather than commercial revenue generation. Key customer segments include vulnerable populations in need, donors, and volunteers. Growth indicators include active event hosting and program needs announcements. The partnership ecosystem includes health organizations and religious entities, enhancing service breadth and community integration. Strategic observations highlight a strong mission-driven approach with opportunities to improve digital security and privacy compliance to align with best practices.

Security posture

The current security posture of the website is weak due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and lack of HTTPS enforcement, exposing users to potential data interception risks. The site does not implement modern TLS protocols, HSTS, or OCSP stapling, which are standard for secure web communications. No security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options are detected, increasing vulnerability to common web attacks. There is no visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure policy, and no dedicated security contact channels are provided. Compliance with GDPR and other data protection regulations appears limited, with no cookie consent mechanism or explicit data protection officer contact. The lack of these security measures poses a significant risk to user data confidentiality and organizational reputation. Immediate remediation is recommended to implement HTTPS, security headers, and privacy compliance mechanisms.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and install a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire website.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and disable deprecated protocols.
  3. Implement HTTP security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  4. Add a cookie policy with a consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations.
  5. Establish and publish an incident response policy and provide dedicated security contact channels.
  6. Optimize website performance by reducing page size and resource count to improve load times.
  7. Enhance accessibility features to meet recognized standards and improve user experience.
  8. Regularly audit and update all third-party plugins and libraries to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  9. Improve privacy compliance by appointing a Data Protection Officer or providing clear contact information.
  10. Increase transparency by adding terms of service and vulnerability disclosure policies.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Catholic Charities of Des Moines
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with a technology stack including jQuery, Slick Carousel for sliders, Venobox for lightbox functionality, Google Translate integration, and EWWW Image Optimizer for image performance. It uses a CDN (BunnyCDN) for media delivery, enhancing global content distribution. The site employs WP Rocket for caching and performance optimization, though current load times are slow with a large page size and many resources. The site is mobile optimized with responsive design and basic accessibility features. SEO is supported with proper meta tags and structured navigation. However, the lack of HTTPS and security headers represents a critical technical risk. The domain is registered with NameCheap and has a mature age consistent with the organization's history. Overall, the infrastructure is modern but requires security and performance improvements to reduce technical debt and operational risks.
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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