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Security report for ccsa.ca

Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction · Non-profit · Canada

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

58/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) is a well-established Canadian non-profit organization focused on substance use and addiction research, policy, and public health. The website serves as a comprehensive resource hub offering research publications, conferences, guidance tools, and community resources. It targets a broad audience including researchers, policymakers, healthcare professionals, and the general public interested in substance use health. The organization's market position is strong nationally, supported by a long domain history and consistent branding. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10, leveraging modern web technologies and analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, though performance is moderate. Hosting is provided by Webnames.ca Inc., a Canadian registrar, with HTTPS enabled and domain status clientTransferProhibited, indicating good domain security. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and has domain transfer protections but lacks visible security headers and publicly disclosed security policies or incident response contacts. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file was found. Privacy and cookie policies are not explicitly detected in the provided HTML content, which may impact compliance perception. Overall, the security posture is good but could be improved with enhanced headers and transparency. The overall risk assessment is low, with no signs of malicious activity or suspicious domain registration patterns. Strategic recommendations include enabling DNSSEC, publishing privacy and cookie policies, adding security headers, and establishing a vulnerability disclosure process to enhance trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

6 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 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

  3. 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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching ccsa.ca

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
52
Security headers
40
Email security
80
DNS health
80
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
53
Average
58

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

CCSA operates as a national non-profit leader in substance use and addiction research and policy in Canada. Its business model focuses on knowledge dissemination through publications, conferences, and digital resources. The organization benefits from a strong partnership ecosystem, linking to multiple related sites and projects. Growth indicators include increasing conference attendance and expanding workforce competency initiatives. The target customer segments are diverse, spanning healthcare, academia, policy, and community sectors. The organization's operations demonstrate maturity and professionalism, with consistent branding and high-quality content.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer protections in place. However, the absence of visible security headers and lack of publicly available security policies or incident response contacts indicate areas for improvement. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. The lack of a vulnerability disclosure mechanism or security.txt file suggests limited incident response readiness. Compliance gaps include missing explicit privacy and cookie policies, which are critical for GDPR and other privacy regulations. Overall, the security culture appears professional but could benefit from enhanced transparency and technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear consent mechanisms to improve compliance.
  3. Implement and verify security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  4. Establish and publicize a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Add explicit incident response contact channels (e.g., security@ or abuse@ emails) to improve transparency and readiness.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction
Description
CCSA is a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to substance use and addiction research, policy, and public health. It provides evidence-based guidance, tools, and resources to support decision-making and improve substance use health across Canada.
Key services
Research and data analysis, Publications and reports, Conferences and webinars, Guidance and tools for professionals, Public education and awareness
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, AddToAny sharing, JavaScript ES modules
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Content is comprehensive and relevant to substance use health.
  3. No privacy or cookie policies explicitly found on the homepage HTML.
  4. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  5. Multiple related partner sites are linked and promoted.
  6. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools.
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found.
  8. No visible security headers in HTML source; may be set at server level.
  9. Domain WHOIS data is consistent and trustworthy.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and widely used CMS, indicating a solid technical foundation. It uses Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for analytics and tracking, and AddToAny for social sharing. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility features. Performance is moderate, likely due to the complexity and size of content. Hosting is through Webnames.ca Inc., a Canadian registrar. The domain is long-established, which reduces risk. Technical risks include lack of DNSSEC and missing security headers, which could be addressed to enhance security posture. Overall, the infrastructure is stable and professionally managed.
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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