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Security report for congressionalaward.org

The Congressional Award · Non-profit · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

61/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Congressional Award website represents a prestigious non-profit organization recognized as the United States Congress' highest honor for youth civilians. It focuses on recognizing initiative, service, and achievement among American youth. The site targets youth participants, educators, and community leaders, providing information about award programs and encouraging community service. The organization maintains a strong market position as an official government-endorsed entity with a clear mission and trusted brand identity. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with Elementor and uses modern web technologies including Google reCAPTCHA for form security and Google Analytics for traffic analysis. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, SEO practices, and accessibility features, although some security headers could be improved. Performance is moderate, with a well-structured and professional design. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, the absence of some security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options suggests room for enhancement. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear privacy and cookie policies and GDPR considerations. Contact information is readily available, enhancing business credibility. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professionally maintained, and aligned with its non-profit mission. The lack of WHOIS data due to privacy protection does not detract from its legitimacy given the official nature of the organization. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, conducting regular security audits, and maintaining up-to-date software to ensure continued trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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. 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.

    • Critical

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  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 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';…

  3. 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

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

Keep watching congressionalaward.org

This scan found 18 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
0
Security headers
35
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
Average
61

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

The Congressional Award operates as a non-profit entity endorsed by the U.S. Congress, focusing on youth achievement recognition. Its competitive advantage lies in its official government backing and established brand. The business model revolves around award programs that encourage youth participation in community service and personal development. Revenue streams likely include donations, sponsorships, and government support. The target customer segments include youth aged 14-24, educators, and community organizations. The website's partnership ecosystem includes social media platforms for outreach and engagement. Growth indicators include active social media presence and regular content updates. The organization maintains a medium size with a focused mission and consistent branding.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and use of Google reCAPTCHA to protect forms from automated abuse. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options indicates potential gaps that could be exploited in certain attack scenarios. There is no public incident response or security policy page, which could be improved to enhance transparency and readiness. Compliance with GDPR is indicated through privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the security culture appears adequate but could benefit from formalized policies and enhanced header configurations.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options HTTP headers to strengthen security.
  2. Publish a formal security policy and incident response plan accessible to users and stakeholders.
  3. Regularly update WordPress core, themes, and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to meet WCAG 2.1 AA standards for broader inclusivity.
  5. Maintain transparency on data retention policies and user privacy practices to bolster GDPR compliance.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
The Congressional Award
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Congressional Award
Description
The Congressional Award recognizes initiative, service, and achievement in America’s youth. It is the United States Congress' highest honor for youth civilians.
Key services
Youth achievement recognition, Award programs, Community service encouragement
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Elementor, Gravity Forms, Google reCAPTCHA, jQuery, PHP, MySQL
Frameworks
Elementor page builder
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of Google reCAPTCHA on forms
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Jetpack Stats
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Jetpack Stats
Marketing tools
Site Kit by Google
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is professionally presented and relevant to youth awards.
  3. Strong use of structured data and SEO best practices.
  4. No suspicious or malicious content detected.
  5. WHOIS data is unavailable, possibly due to privacy protection or registry restrictions.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform utilizing the Elementor page builder plugin, Gravity Forms for form management, and Google reCAPTCHA for spam prevention. It employs jQuery and other JavaScript libraries for interactivity. The site uses modern SEO techniques including structured data (JSON-LD) and Open Graph metadata for social sharing. Performance is moderate with some optimization opportunities in asset loading and caching. Mobile responsiveness is good, ensuring usability across devices. Technical debt appears low, but continuous monitoring and updates are necessary to maintain security and performance 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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