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Security report for crossborderitem.eu

Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross border cooperation and Mobility (ITEM) · Education · Netherlands

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

ITEM is an academic research institute affiliated with Maastricht University, specializing in interdisciplinary research on cross-border and Euregional mobility and cooperation. The website serves as a platform to disseminate research findings, publications, and policy advice targeting academics, policymakers, and regional stakeholders. The organization is positioned as a specialized center with a focus on practical solutions for cross-border challenges in the Euregion. Technically, the website is built on a modern WordPress stack with multilingual support and GDPR-compliant cookie management. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though security headers could be improved. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear policies and consent mechanisms. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and well-structured, supporting the institute's mission effectively.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
80/ 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

6 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 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 Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

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

Keep watching crossborderitem.eu

This scan found 23 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

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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
77
Security headers
15
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
80
Average
68

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 institute operates within the education and government/non-profit sectors, focusing on research and policy advisory services related to cross-border cooperation. Its business model revolves around academic research projects, publications, and collaborations with regional governments and educational institutions. The website reflects a strong partnership ecosystem, including Maastricht University and regional entities. Growth indicators include active publication of reports and hosting of events. The target audience includes academics, policymakers, and regional stakeholders interested in cross-border issues. The website's content and structure support its market positioning as a credible and specialized research center.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and a GDPR-compliant cookie consent mechanism. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and incident response information indicates room for improvement. There is no published security policy or dedicated incident response contact, which could be beneficial for transparency and trust. Overall, the security measures are adequate for the website's purpose but could be enhanced to align with best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Implement security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response procedure accessible on the website to improve transparency and preparedness.
  3. Regularly audit and update WordPress plugins and themes to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  4. Consider adding analytics with privacy-respecting configurations to gain insights into user behavior while maintaining compliance.
  5. Enhance SEO by adding structured data (JSON-LD) for organization and events to improve search visibility.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross border cooperation and Mobility (ITEM)
Description
ITEM conducts interdisciplinary research on cross-border Euregional mobility and cooperation issues, focusing on practical solutions from legal, economic, cultural, and administrative perspectives in collaboration with Maastricht University faculties.
Key services
Interdisciplinary research, Publications and reports, Policy advice, Cross-border cooperation projects
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.8.1, PHP, Complianz GDPR plugin, WPML Multilingual CMS, Bricks Theme, Automatic CSS plugin
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner with opt-in mechanism
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
Complianz GDPR Cookie Consent
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 in Dutch with English alternate language available.
  3. Cookie consent is implemented with opt-in mechanism via Complianz plugin.
  4. Contact information is clearly provided including email, phone, and physical address.
  5. No terms of service page found.
  6. No explicit security or incident response policies published.
  7. No visible analytics or tracking services detected beyond cookie consent.
  8. Website uses modern WordPress stack with multilingual support.
  9. No suspicious or malicious content detected.
  10. Social media presence on LinkedIn and YouTube confirmed.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress 6.8.1 using the Bricks theme and several plugins including Complianz for GDPR compliance and WPML for multilingual support. The tech stack is modern and supports responsive design with good accessibility features. Performance is moderate, with lazy loading implemented for images. The site uses automatic CSS generation and custom fonts. No major technical debt or deprecated technologies were detected. Hosting provider details are not explicitly available. The site could benefit from additional SEO enhancements and security header implementations.
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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