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Security report for daad.de

Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

71/100

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 an official platform providing comprehensive information about scholarships, academic exchange programs, and services for universities. It targets students, academics, and educational institutions primarily in Germany but also internationally. The DAAD operates as a non-profit organization with a strong market position in the education sector. Technically, the website is built using modern frameworks such as Nuxt.js and Vue.js, hosted on Microsoft Azure infrastructure, and employs Bootstrap for responsive design. The site demonstrates excellent mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, ensuring a fast and user-friendly experience. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, implements standard security headers, and includes a cookie consent mechanism compliant with GDPR. However, it lacks a dedicated security policy or incident response contact information, which could enhance transparency and trust. Overall, the DAAD website is professional, secure, and compliant with privacy regulations, reflecting the organization's credibility and commitment to international academic cooperation. Strategic improvements could focus on publishing explicit security policies and vulnerability disclosure channels to further strengthen its security posture.

Scanned

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

4 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

      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

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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.

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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
52
Security headers
95
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
71

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.

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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 holds a dominant position in the international academic exchange market, leveraging its status as a government-affiliated non-profit to provide scholarships and support services. Its business model centers on funding and facilitating educational mobility, targeting students, researchers, and higher education institutions. The organization benefits from strong brand recognition and trust, supported by comprehensive legal disclosures and privacy compliance. Partnerships and hosting on Azure indicate a mature digital ecosystem. The website's multilingual support and clear navigation enhance its accessibility to a global audience. Growth opportunities may include expanding digital services and enhancing transparency around security and data protection. The absence of visible advertising or affiliate programs aligns with its non-commercial mission, focusing on service delivery rather than monetization.

Security posture

The DAAD website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, robust security headers, and GDPR-compliant cookie consent. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. However, the lack of a published security policy or incident response contacts represents a gap in transparency and readiness for security incidents. The site uses modern frameworks and hosting providers known for security, but continuous monitoring and disclosure mechanisms would improve resilience. Compliance with GDPR is evident, but additional certifications or security frameworks (e.g., ISO 27001) are not mentioned. The site should consider publishing a security.txt file and providing clear channels for vulnerability reporting to align with best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and compliance.
  2. Provide clear incident response contact information, including security or abuse email addresses.
  3. Implement and publish a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance transparency around data retention policies and user data handling.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

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

Technology

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

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with opt-in/opt-out
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of modern JavaScript frameworks

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 and not blocked by WAF or security mechanisms.
  2. Content is primarily in German with English version available.
  3. Strong compliance with GDPR and cookie consent requirements.
  4. No visible security or privacy red flags.
  5. No exposed emails or phone numbers in the main HTML content; contact via forms and official pages.
  6. No advertising or tracking scripts detected in the provided HTML snippet.
  7. Modern web technologies and frameworks used for frontend.
  8. Clear navigation and professional branding.
Technical notes

Notes

The website leverages a modern technology stack including Nuxt.js and Vue.js for frontend rendering, supported by Bootstrap CSS for responsive design. Hosting on Microsoft Azure provides reliable infrastructure and DNS services. The site demonstrates good performance with fast loading times and excellent mobile optimization. Accessibility features such as ARIA labels and keyboard navigation are present, enhancing usability. SEO is well addressed through meta tags, Open Graph data, and structured data (JSON-LD). The site uses a cookie consent mechanism aligned with GDPR requirements. No legacy or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. Overall, the technical implementation supports a professional and secure user experience with opportunities for further enhancement in security transparency.
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. 69/100 −8Medium30 findingsView report
  2. 77/100Low28 findingsView report
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