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Security report for countyofkane.org

Kane County Government · Government · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

53/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Kane County Government operates an official county government website serving residents, businesses, and visitors of Kane County, Illinois. The site provides a broad range of public services information including property tax, voter information, recycling, court resources, zoning petitions, and public meeting schedules. It also features media releases, emergency alerts, and social media integration to enhance community engagement. The website targets local citizens and stakeholders seeking government services and transparency. Technically, the website is built on Microsoft SharePoint with modern front-end technologies such as Bootstrap and jQuery. It integrates Google Analytics and Siteimprove for analytics and quality monitoring. The site is mobile responsive with basic accessibility features and moderate performance. However, it lacks advanced security headers and cookie consent mechanisms, which are important for compliance and security. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and uses form digest tokens to protect forms against CSRF attacks. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. However, the absence of security headers and vulnerability disclosure policies indicates room for improvement in security posture. The domain registration aligns well with the official government entity, supporting high legitimacy and trust. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and functional with good content quality and user experience. Strategic improvements in privacy compliance and security best practices would enhance its security and regulatory posture, further strengthening public trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
10/ 100 · Critical
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. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

  2. 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

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

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

Keep watching countyofkane.org

This scan found 20 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
0
Security headers
65
Email security
60
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
10
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

Kane County Government holds a strong market position as the official public sector entity providing essential government services to a large population in Illinois. Its business model focuses on public service delivery and community engagement rather than commercial revenue. The website supports transparency and accessibility to government operations, which is critical for public trust. The presence of multiple partner domains related to county services and emergency management indicates a well-established partnership ecosystem. The site’s content and service offerings reflect a mature government digital presence with opportunities to modernize security and privacy practices. The county’s use of live streaming, social media, and regular media releases demonstrates active communication channels and responsiveness to community needs. The website’s integration with external government and community resources further enhances its value proposition. Growth indicators include ongoing updates to public events and media content, suggesting active maintenance and engagement.

Security posture

The security maturity of the Kane County Government website is moderate. HTTPS is properly enforced, and SharePoint’s form digest tokens provide CSRF protection. However, the lack of critical security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security reduces defense-in-depth. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response contacts are published, which limits transparency and readiness for security incidents. The use of third-party analytics and scripts introduces potential risk vectors that require regular auditing. Compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR is not evident, and no cookie consent mechanism is implemented. While no exposed sensitive data or critical vulnerabilities were found, the site would benefit from enhanced security controls and documented policies. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a government informational site but should be improved to meet modern standards and regulatory expectations.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner and privacy compliance mechanisms to meet GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to improve transparency and incident response readiness.
  4. Conduct regular security audits of third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance with WCAG standards and user inclusivity.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Kane County Government
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Kane County Government
Description
The Kane County Illinois Government Website providing information and services related to county government, community resources, business, permits, careers, and public events.
Key services
Property Tax Information, Voter Information, Recycling, Court Information, Zoning Petitions, Pet Adoption, Transparency and FOIA, Public Meetings and Calendars, Media Releases, Emergency Alerts
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Microsoft SharePoint 2013/2016 (On-Premises), Bootstrap 5, jQuery 3.7.1, Moment.js, Google Translate widget, Google Analytics (gtag.js), Siteimprove Analytics
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
SharePoint
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
65/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (site accessed via https://www.kanecountyil.gov)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of form digest tokens for CSRF protection in forms

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Siteimprove Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Siteimprove Analytics
Marketing tools
Siteimprove Analytics, Constant Contact (via constantcontactpages.com)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official government website with comprehensive public service information.
  2. Uses Microsoft SharePoint as CMS platform.
  3. Includes social media integration and live streaming links.
  4. No visible privacy or cookie consent banners detected.
  5. No explicit security policy or incident response contact information found.
  6. Good content quality and navigation structure.
  7. No signs of blocking or WAF challenges.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a Microsoft SharePoint platform with Bootstrap 5 and jQuery 3.7.1 for front-end responsiveness and interactivity. It uses Moment.js for date/time handling and integrates Google Translate for multilingual support. Analytics are provided by Google Analytics and Siteimprove. The site is hosted on a government domain with HTTPS enabled, but no advanced security headers were detected. Performance is moderate with room for optimization. The site is mobile responsive and has basic accessibility features. The technical stack is stable but could benefit from modernization in security and privacy implementations to reduce technical debt and improve resilience.
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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