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Security report for csuch.ca

Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction · Healthcare · Canada

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

50/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CSUCH) website serves as a comprehensive resource for data and research related to the costs and harms of substance use in Canada. It offers detailed reports, provincial and territorial infographics, and an interactive data visualization tool to support policymakers, researchers, and the public. The site is well-branded and professionally designed, reflecting its authoritative position in the healthcare and public health research sector. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including Bootstrap for responsive design, FontAwesome for icons, and JavaScript libraries such as jQuery. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices evident. Hosting and domain registration are consistent with the Canadian focus of the organization, though DNSSEC is not enabled, and some security headers appear to be missing. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and has domain transfer protections in place, but lacks explicit security policies, incident response information, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Privacy compliance is well addressed with clear privacy and cookie policies and a GDPR-compliant cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the website presents a low-risk profile with strong business credibility and good technical implementation. Strategic improvements in security headers, DNSSEC, and formal security policies would enhance the security posture and trust further.

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

8 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 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 csuch.ca

This scan found 27 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.

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Full report

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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
52
Security headers
15
Email security
40
DNS health
70
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
80
Average
50

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

CSUCH occupies a niche as a trusted non-profit research entity focused on substance use costs in Canada. Its competitive advantage lies in authoritative data, government and academic partnerships, and user-friendly data visualization tools. The business model centers on public education and policy support rather than commercial revenue. The target audience includes government agencies, healthcare professionals, researchers, and informed citizens. The partnership ecosystem includes the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction and the University of Victoria's research institute, enhancing credibility and reach. Growth indicators include regular data updates and expanding interactive tools.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and domain transfer protections. However, the absence of DNSSEC, security headers, and published security policies indicates room for improvement. There is no evidence of vulnerability disclosure or incident response readiness publicly available. Data protection practices appear adequate given the nature of the site, which does not collect sensitive user data directly. Compliance with GDPR is indicated by cookie consent and privacy notices. Overall, the security posture is sufficient for a public informational site but could be strengthened to mitigate emerging threats and enhance user trust.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to protect against DNS spoofing and improve domain security.
  2. Implement standard security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options.
  3. Publish a formal security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  4. Establish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to ensure no vulnerable libraries are in use.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction
Description
CSUCH provides data and research on the costs and harms related to substance use in Canada, including visualization tools and reports.
Key services
Data visualization tool, Research reports, Provincial and territorial cost infographics, Public education resources
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Bootstrap, FontAwesome, jQuery, SVG, JavaScript
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed with clear navigation and consistent branding.
  2. Content is focused on Canadian substance use cost data and research.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity detected.
  4. Privacy and cookie policies are present and GDPR compliant.
  5. No explicit security policy or incident response information found.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy detected.
  7. No phone numbers explicitly labeled as company contact found.
  8. No social media links detected in the provided content.
  9. No analytics or tracking scripts explicitly identified.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern and stable technology stack centered on Bootstrap and jQuery, ensuring responsive and accessible design. The use of SVG graphics and interactive JavaScript enhances user engagement. Hosting details are limited but domain registration is consistent and stable. Performance is moderate, with no major issues detected. SEO and accessibility are well addressed through meta tags, ARIA landmarks, and skip links. Technical debt appears low, but the absence of CMS or advanced frameworks suggests manual content management which could impact scalability.
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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