Skip to main content

Security report for csem.ch

CSEM · Technology · Switzerland

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

CSEM is a Swiss public-private, non-profit technology innovation center founded in 1984, headquartered in Neuchâtel, with over 600 employees and multiple locations across Switzerland. It specializes in developing and transferring disruptive technologies with high societal impact across sectors such as precision manufacturing, digitalization, ultra-low-power electronics, AI, optical elements, and sustainable energy. The organization collaborates extensively with universities, research institutes, and industry partners, supporting innovation and economic growth in Switzerland. Technically, the website is built on modern frameworks like Nuxt.js and uses Prismic CMS, hosted on Netlify, but suffers from a critical security weakness due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols, which severely impacts secure communications. Privacy and cookie policies are well implemented with consent mechanisms, and contact information is comprehensive, including email, phone, and physical address. The site demonstrates strong business credibility with testimonials, certifications, and active participation in industry events. Overall, while the business and content quality are excellent, the security posture requires urgent improvement to protect user data and maintain trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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

3 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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 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';…
  2. 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 csem.ch

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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
50
Security headers
40
Email security
75
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
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

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 csem.ch, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
172
Employees
0
Customers
146
Third parties
26
Weak passwords
5%

8 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 csem.ch.

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

CSEM holds a strong market position as a leading Swiss innovation center with a focus on technology transfer and collaboration with industrial partners. Its business model revolves around applied research, technology development, and supporting SMEs and start-ups. The company targets industrial sectors including energy, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and digital technologies. Revenue streams likely include technology licensing, consulting, project collaborations, and public-private partnerships. The presence of multiple patents and participation in European projects indicates a robust innovation pipeline. The company maintains a broad partnership ecosystem with universities, research institutes, and industry leaders, enhancing its competitive advantage. Growth indicators include expansion plans (new site in Schwyz), awards, and recognition as a top employer. Strategic observations highlight CSEM's role as a technology enabler bridging academia and industry, with a focus on emerging technologies like AI, IoT, and bioconvergence.

Security posture

The current security maturity level of the website is low due to the lack of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols, resulting in unencrypted HTTP traffic which exposes users to potential interception and man-in-the-middle attacks. While some security headers like HSTS and X-Content-Type-Options are present, they are not fully configured to maximize protection. No evidence of incident response policies or security frameworks was found on the site. The absence of OCSP stapling and session resumption mechanisms further weakens the security posture. No vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed or POODLE were detected, but the fundamental lack of HTTPS is a critical issue. Compliance with GDPR is supported by the presence of privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms, but the insecure transport layer undermines overall data protection. The security culture appears limited on the public-facing site, with no explicit security or incident response contact information.

Recommendations

  1. Immediately obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS and secure all communications.
  2. Enable and configure modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and 1.3) and strong cipher suites to protect data in transit.
  3. Enhance HSTS policy by including subdomains and enabling preload to prevent protocol downgrade attacks.
  4. Implement OCSP stapling and session resumption to improve SSL performance and security.
  5. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  6. Regularly audit website security headers and configurations to adhere to best practices.
  7. Maintain and update privacy and cookie policies to ensure ongoing GDPR compliance.
  8. Conduct security awareness training and embed security culture within organizational practices.
  9. Monitor and mitigate any potential vulnerabilities in third-party scripts and libraries.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
CSEM SA
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern technology stack including Nuxt.js framework and Prismic CMS, hosted on Netlify with CDN support. It leverages Google Fonts and Azure Edge for marketing scripts and tracking. The site is mobile optimized with good accessibility and SEO practices. However, performance metrics indicate slow loading times, possibly due to large media assets and multiple preloaded scripts. The DNS setup is standard with no DNSSEC or CAA records, but no subdomain takeover vulnerabilities were detected. The SSL configuration is critically lacking, with no valid certificate and no TLS protocols enabled, which is a major risk. The site uses JavaScript modules and modern web standards but should improve security and performance optimizations. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional and content-rich website but requires urgent security upgrades and performance tuning.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with csem.ch. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review csem.ch.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.