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Security report for daad.de

Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) is the world's largest funding organization dedicated to the international exchange of students and researchers. The website serves as a comprehensive portal offering information about scholarships, studying and researching in Germany and abroad, and services for universities. It targets students, academics, and educational institutions globally, positioning itself as a key player in international academic exchange. Technically, the website is built using modern frameworks such as Vue.js and Nuxt.js, styled with Bootstrap, and hosted on Microsoft Azure infrastructure. The site demonstrates good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility features, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and implements GDPR-compliant cookie consent mechanisms. While explicit security headers and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not clearly visible, the overall security posture is strong with no evident vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Overall, the DAAD website is a professional, trustworthy, and well-maintained platform that effectively supports its mission. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security header visibility, publishing a security.txt file, and improving incident response contact transparency to further strengthen security and compliance.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of daad.de. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 100 · High
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

5 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

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1
    • High

      SSL Certificate Expires Soon

      SSL certificate expires in 28 days

      What to do: Renew SSL certificate before expiration

      • NIS2 21(2)(h)
      • IR 2024/2690 9.2(c): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 9.2(c): Cryptography
      • NIST SC-17: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-17: Public Key Infrastructure Certificates
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 384-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching daad.de

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
42
Security headers
95
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
69

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 daad.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
9,272
Employees
0
Customers
9,231
Third parties
41
Weak passwords
8%

22 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 daad.de.

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

DAAD operates as a non-profit organization in the education sector, focusing on international academic exchange. Its market position as the largest global funding body for academic exchange provides significant competitive advantage. The business model revolves around scholarship funding, internationalization support, and educational services. Target customers include students, researchers, and universities worldwide. The organization benefits from a strong partnership ecosystem and a reputable brand, with a clear focus on growth through international collaboration and academic mobility.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and GDPR-compliant cookie consent mechanisms. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. However, the absence of explicit security headers and a vulnerability disclosure policy indicates room for improvement. Incident response readiness and security culture indicators are not prominently visible, suggesting potential gaps in transparency and communication. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by adopting additional best practices and public disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Publish and enforce explicit security headers such as X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Create and maintain a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosures.
  3. Enhance visibility of incident response contacts and procedures on the website.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking mechanisms to ensure privacy compliance.
  5. Implement continuous monitoring and update security policies to align with evolving standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)
Description
Der DAAD ist die weltweit größte Förderorganisation für den internationalen Austausch von Studierenden und Wissenschaftlern.
Key services
Scholarships, International academic exchange, Support for studying and researching in Germany and abroad, Information and services for universities
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Vue.js, Bootstrap CSS, Nuxt.js, Azure DNS
Frameworks
Bootstrap, Nuxt.js
Platforms
Azure
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with GDPR compliance
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with POST method

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is in German with an English version available.
  3. Strong focus on academic exchange and international education.
  4. Cookie consent mechanism is implemented with GDPR compliance.
  5. No visible email addresses or phone numbers in the HTML content; contact is via contact form.
  6. No explicit terms of service page found.
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page detected.
  8. Use of modern web technologies and frameworks.
  9. No advertising or tracking scripts detected in the provided HTML.
  10. High-quality design and user experience.
Technical notes

Notes

The website leverages a modern technology stack including Vue.js, Nuxt.js, and Bootstrap, hosted on Microsoft Azure. The infrastructure supports responsive design and accessibility, with good SEO practices evident from meta tags and structured data. Performance is moderate, likely due to rich content and dynamic features. There is minimal technical debt visible, and the platform appears well-maintained. Opportunities exist to optimize loading times and enhance security header implementation to reduce technical risks.
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. 71/100 −6Medium30 findingsView report
  2. 77/100Low28 findingsView report
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