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Security report for creativecommons.org

Creative Commons Corporation · Non-profit · Canada

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

Security score

52/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Creative Commons Corporation is a well-established international nonprofit organization founded in 2001, dedicated to promoting open access to knowledge and culture through its globally recognized licensing framework and tools. The organization serves a broad audience including creators, educators, cultural institutions, and the general public, positioning itself as a leader in the open licensing ecosystem with strong partnerships such as Wikipedia, The Met, and Khan Academy. Their business model focuses on advocacy, education, and providing open licenses and tools to facilitate sharing and reuse of creative works. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern SEO and analytics integrations, hosted with reputable providers and utilizing Cloudflare DNS. The site demonstrates excellent performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. Analytics usage is moderate with Google Analytics implemented via MonsterInsights, and privacy compliance is supported by comprehensive privacy and terms policies, though explicit cookie consent mechanisms are not evident. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS with a strong SSL configuration and domain transfer protections. However, it lacks DNSSEC and explicit security headers, and no public security policy or incident response contacts are published. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected, indicating a solid security posture appropriate for a nonprofit organization. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and content-rich, with a high legitimacy score based on WHOIS data consistency and domain age. Strategic recommendations include enabling DNSSEC, adding security headers, publishing a security policy, and implementing a cookie consent mechanism to enhance privacy compliance and security transparency.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of creativecommons.org. View the latest report

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. 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 creativecommons.org

This scan found 22 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
15
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
52

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention creativecommons.org, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
2,229
Employees
0
Customers
2,180
Third parties
49
Weak passwords
17%

12 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for creativecommons.org.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Creative Commons holds a strong market position as the primary nonprofit steward of open licensing globally, with over two decades of influence and adoption by major cultural and educational institutions. Their competitive advantage lies in their widely recognized licenses, global network, and educational programs. Revenue streams likely include donations, grants, and certificate program fees. The target customer segments include creators, educators, cultural institutions, and advocates of open knowledge. Growth indicators include active community engagement, regular events like the Global Summit, and ongoing product development. The partnership ecosystem is robust, involving Wikimedia Foundation, museums, educational platforms, and open source communities. Operationally, the organization maintains a consistent brand and professional digital presence aligned with its mission.

Security posture

The security maturity of Creative Commons' website is good, with mandatory HTTPS enforced and no critical vulnerabilities detected. The use of clientTransferProhibited status on the domain adds protection against unauthorized transfers. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content Security Policy and HSTS represents areas for improvement. There is no publicly available security policy or incident response contact, which could hinder transparency and responsiveness in case of security incidents. Data protection practices appear adequate with no exposed sensitive data and privacy policies in place. The presence of an opt-out mechanism for Google Analytics tracking indicates privacy awareness. Overall, the security posture is appropriate for a nonprofit but could be enhanced by adopting additional best practices and formalizing incident response procedures.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement standard security headers including Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and provide clear incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  4. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply fully with privacy regulations and inform users about tracking.
  5. Regularly review and update third-party scripts and analytics tools to minimize privacy risks and ensure compliance.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Creative Commons Corporation
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Creative Commons Corporation
Description
Creative Commons is an international nonprofit organization that empowers people to grow and sustain the thriving commons of shared knowledge and culture to address global challenges and create a brighter future.
Key services
Creative Commons licenses and tools, Global network community, Educational certificate programs, Annual global summits, Open source product development, Search portal for openly licensed materials
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO plugin, Google Analytics (MonsterInsights), Cloudflare DNS
Frameworks
WordPress CMS
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced with SSL
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Google Analytics opt-out mechanism present

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
MonsterInsights Google Analytics plugin
Transparency
good

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 maintained.
  2. Content is rich, relevant, and updated regularly.
  3. Strong presence of trust signals including partnerships and licensing clarity.
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  5. Security posture is good but can be improved with DNSSEC and security headers.
  6. Privacy and terms policies are present and comprehensive.
  7. No contact phone numbers found; only email and physical address provided.
  8. No explicit cookie consent mechanism detected despite cookie usage.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform enhanced with Yoast SEO and MonsterInsights for analytics. It uses Cloudflare for DNS services and Google Tag Manager for analytics deployment. The site demonstrates fast loading times, excellent mobile responsiveness, and good accessibility features. The HTML and CSS are valid and well-structured, supporting SEO and user experience. There is no indication of technical debt or legacy code. Opportunities for modernization include adding DNSSEC and security headers to improve security posture. The current technical stack supports the organization's mission effectively with scalability and maintainability.
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. 65/100 −1Medium32 findingsView report
  2. 66/100 +3Medium32 findingsView report
  3. 63/100Medium27 findingsView report
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