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Security report for cern.ch

CERN · Education · Switzerland

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in Email security and Security headers.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

CERN is a globally recognized intergovernmental scientific research organization specializing in fundamental physics. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for scientific information, news, events, and educational resources targeting scientists, educators, and the general public. It maintains a strong market position as a leader in particle physics research and public outreach. The technical infrastructure is modern, leveraging Drupal 10 CMS and open-source technologies, with good performance and mobile optimization. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement and domain transfer protections, though DNSSEC is not enabled and explicit security policies are not publicly visible. Privacy and cookie policies are not clearly presented, indicating room for compliance improvement. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and content-rich, reflecting CERN's authoritative status in science.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 100 · Low
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

3 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 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 cern.ch

This scan found 21 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.

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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
85
Security headers
40
Email security
60
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
73

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

CERN operates as a non-profit intergovernmental organization focused on advancing scientific knowledge in particle physics. Its business model centers on research, collaboration, and knowledge dissemination. The website supports this by providing extensive resources, news, and event information. The organization targets multiple audiences including scientists, educators, media, and the general public. CERN's partnerships and related domains indicate a strong ecosystem for education and outreach. The website's content and structure support CERN's mission and enhance its global reputation.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer protections in place. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. However, the absence of DNSSEC and lack of visible security or incident response policies suggest areas for enhancement. The use of Matomo analytics with DoNotTrack enabled shows respect for user privacy. Publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file would further strengthen security transparency and incident response readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish clear privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms to enhance GDPR compliance.
  3. Add a publicly accessible security policy and incident response contact information.
  4. Implement a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
CERN
Description
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works.
Key services
Fundamental physics research, Accelerator operation, Scientific experiments, Educational resources, Public outreach and events
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Matomo Analytics, Owl Carousel, Prism.js, jQuery, CSS3, HTML5
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status
  • No exposed emails in HTML
  • No inline sensitive data
  • Use of Matomo with DoNotTrack enabled

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo Analytics
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally maintained official site of CERN.
  2. Content is rich, scientific, and educational.
  3. No signs of phishing, malware, or suspicious activity.
  4. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found on homepage HTML.
  5. Strong branding and consistent design.
  6. Multiple language support (English and French).
  7. Use of open-source and modern web technologies.
  8. No exposed sensitive data or security issues detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and secure CMS platform, with additional JavaScript libraries such as Owl Carousel and Prism.js for enhanced user experience. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and canonical links. Hosting appears to be managed internally or via specialized providers, ensuring control over infrastructure. Performance is fast with deferred and async script loading. There is no evidence of technical debt or outdated technologies. Opportunities exist to enhance security headers and implement DNSSEC.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 71/100 +22Medium29 findingsView report
  2. 49/100High25 findingsView report
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