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Security report for dataverse.org

The President and Fellows of Harvard College · Education · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

64/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Dataverse Project is an established open source research data repository software initiative affiliated with Harvard University. It serves a broad academic audience including researchers, journals, institutions, and developers by providing tools for data management, sharing, and preservation. The project is positioned as a leading platform in the academic data repository space with a strong community and institutional backing. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 7 with OpenScholar, leveraging modern web fonts, MathJax for math rendering, and Akamai CDN for performance. Google Tag Manager is used for analytics. The site is mobile optimized and has good navigation and content relevance. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS enabled and domain protections in place, but lacks DNSSEC and security headers. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing explicit privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and safe for general audiences.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 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

7 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 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

    • 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Twitter, Cloudflare, Google APIs

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching dataverse.org

This scan found 24 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
50
Email security
70
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
64

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 Dataverse Project operates as an important entity within the education sector, focusing on open source software for research data management. Its business model revolves around community-driven development and institutional adoption rather than direct commercial sales. The project benefits from Harvard's reputation and a global network of users and contributors. Key competitive advantages include its open source nature, integration capabilities, and strong academic credibility. The target customers are academic researchers, journals enforcing data policies, institutions seeking federated data solutions, and developers contributing to or integrating with the platform. Growth indicators include active blog updates, community calls, and a visible roadmap. Partnerships with organizations like DataCite and the Global Dataverse Community Consortium enhance its ecosystem.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level. HTTPS is properly implemented, and domain registration includes EPP protections to prevent unauthorized changes. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security reduces the overall security posture. No explicit incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies are published, which could impact readiness for security events. Privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms are missing, indicating compliance gaps with GDPR and related regulations. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the provided content. The use of older Drupal 7 CMS may pose some risks if not regularly patched. Overall, the security culture appears cautious but could be improved with formal policies and technical enhancements.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with GDPR compliance details.
  3. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to improve browser security.
  4. Establish and publicize an incident response plan and vulnerability disclosure process to improve transparency and readiness.
  5. Upgrade or ensure regular security patching of Drupal 7 CMS to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Description
Open source research data repository software enabling researchers, journals, institutions, and developers to manage, share, and preserve research data.
Key services
Research data repository software, Personal Dataverse collections for researchers, Journal data management, Institutional data management solutions, Developer community and integrations
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 7, OpenScholar, Google Web Fonts, MathJax, jQuery 1.8, Google Tag Manager, Akamai CDN, BOOMR (Akamai Real User Monitoring)
Frameworks
Drupal 7, OpenScholar
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited and other EPP protections

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a well-established academic open source project affiliated with Harvard.
  2. Content is rich and targeted to researchers, journals, institutions, and developers.
  3. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found on main site.
  4. Security headers are missing or not detected in provided data.
  5. DNSSEC is not enabled, which is a minor security gap.
  6. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly listed on homepage; contact form available.
  7. Use of Google Tag Manager indicates some user tracking.
  8. No signs of adult or unsafe content.
  9. Website uses Drupal 7, which is an older CMS version but still widely used.
  10. No WAF or blocking detected; site fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 7 with the OpenScholar framework, indicating a mature but aging technology stack. It uses Google Web Fonts, MathJax for math rendering, and Akamai CDN for content delivery, which supports moderate performance and global reach. Google Tag Manager is integrated for analytics and tracking, though privacy compliance is lacking. The site is mobile optimized and has good SEO meta tags and Open Graph data. However, the absence of modern security headers and DNSSEC suggests technical debt in security practices. The site performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts and use of CDNs. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but would benefit from modernization and enhanced security configurations.
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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