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Security report for caves.org

National Speleological Society · Non-profit · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

53/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The National Speleological Society (NSS) is a well-established non-profit organization dedicated to the study, exploration, and conservation of caves. Founded in 1941, it boasts a large membership base of over 8,000 individuals worldwide, positioning itself as the largest cave-focused membership organization globally. The NSS offers a range of services including education, scientific research, conservation efforts, events, and publications, targeting caving enthusiasts, researchers, and conservationists. The website reflects a professional and consistent brand image with rich content relevant to its audience.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 100 · Medium
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. 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 caves.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

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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
72
Security headers
20
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
58
Average
53

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

NSS operates primarily as a membership-driven non-profit with a focus on cave science and conservation. Its market position is strong within the niche of speleology and cave exploration. The organization leverages events, training, grants, and publications as key engagement and revenue streams. The presence of multiple social media channels and a well-structured website supports community building and outreach. The use of privacy protection in domain registration is justified given the non-profit nature and privacy concerns. The organization appears stable with a long history and reputable hosting infrastructure.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with good SSL configuration and domain locking to prevent unauthorized transfers. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, which is a recommended security enhancement. No explicit security or incident response policies are published, and no cookie consent mechanism is present, which are gaps in compliance and transparency. The use of third-party scripts like Google Tag Manager and WooCommerce is standard but requires ongoing monitoring for vulnerabilities. Overall, the security posture is good but could be improved with enhanced DNS security and published policies.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement a cookie consent banner to comply with privacy regulations such as GDPR.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  4. Conduct regular security audits of third-party plugins and scripts to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to improve usability and compliance with standards.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
National Speleological Society
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
National Speleological Society
Description
Since 1941 the National Speleological Society has been dedicated to protecting, studying, and exploring caves. With 8,000 members we are the largest cave focused membership organization in the world.
Key services
Membership services, Cave conservation, Education and training, Scientific research, Events and conventions, Publications, Grants and awards
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.8.2, WooCommerce 9.9.5, Yoast SEO plugin, Google Tag Manager, jQuery, Bootstrap 4, Owl Carousel, Font Awesome 5
Frameworks
Bootstrap 4
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain locked with multiple client prohibitions
  • No exposed sensitive data found in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Marketing tools
Yoast SEO
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well maintained.
  2. Content is rich and relevant to cave science and exploration.
  3. Strong social media presence across multiple platforms.
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  5. Lacks explicit cookie consent mechanism and security policy disclosures.
  6. WHOIS privacy protection is used but justified.
  7. No WAF or blocking detected, full content accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress 6.8.2 with WooCommerce for e-commerce capabilities and uses modern front-end technologies including Bootstrap 4 and Owl Carousel. Hosting is provided via Amazon AWS infrastructure, indicated by AWS DNS servers, ensuring reliable performance and scalability. SEO is enhanced through the Yoast SEO plugin, and analytics are managed via Google Tag Manager. The site is mobile optimized with good navigation and content structure. Performance is moderate, with potential for improvement through optimization of assets and caching. Accessibility is basic and could be improved to meet higher standards.
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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