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Security report for dbu.de

Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt · Energy · Germany

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

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) is a prominent German environmental foundation focused on funding innovative and sustainable projects primarily targeting the medium-sized business sector. Established in 1990, DBU has a strong market position as one of Europe's largest environmental foundations, offering project funding, scholarships, and fellowships. The website reflects this mission with comprehensive content, clear navigation, and a professional design that supports its credibility and outreach. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern JavaScript libraries and multilingual support via WPML. Hosting is managed through Deutsche Telekom's name servers, indicating a reliable infrastructure. The site is mobile-optimized and performs moderately well, with good SEO and accessibility features. Analytics are handled via Plausible, a privacy-focused service, indicating a moderate user tracking level with good privacy compliance. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and avoids exposing sensitive data. However, it lacks explicit security headers and published security or incident response policies, which are areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or suspicious activities were detected. Privacy compliance is generally good, with a comprehensive privacy policy present, but the absence of a cookie consent mechanism is a minor gap. Overall, the DBU website is a trustworthy, professional, and well-maintained platform that effectively supports the foundation's mission. Strategic enhancements in security policies and privacy mechanisms would further strengthen its posture and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
40/ 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. 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. 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';…

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Keep watching dbu.de

This scan found 28 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

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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
77
Security headers
15
Email security
60
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
40
Average
60

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

DBU operates as a non-profit entity in the environmental sector, focusing on funding and supporting projects that promote sustainability, resource efficiency, and climate protection. Its competitive advantage lies in its long-standing reputation, significant funding volume, and targeted support for medium-sized enterprises. Revenue streams are primarily from foundation endowments and government support. The target customers include environmental researchers, SMEs seeking funding, and the general public interested in sustainability. The foundation maintains a broad partnership ecosystem, including international projects and initiatives. Growth indicators include expanding fellowship programs and digital initiatives like sustainable digital transformation. The website content and structure reflect a mature, well-established organization with clear strategic goals and strong market presence.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS and no visible exposure of sensitive data. The use of defer attributes on scripts and absence of inline sensitive credentials are positive indicators. However, the lack of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options reduces defense-in-depth. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is published, which could hinder timely reporting and mitigation of security issues. GDPR compliance is mostly addressed through a comprehensive privacy policy, but the missing cookie consent mechanism is a compliance gap. Overall, the security culture appears cautious but could benefit from formalized policies and enhanced technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to improve protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  3. Introduce a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply fully with GDPR and ePrivacy regulations.
  4. Develop and publish explicit security and incident response policies to enhance transparency and preparedness.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and scripts to mitigate risks from vulnerable dependencies.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt
Description
Die Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) fördert innovative, modellhafte und lösungsorientierte Vorhaben zum Schutz der Umwelt mit besonderem Fokus auf die mittelständische Wirtschaft. Sie ist eine der größten Stiftungen Europas und unterstützt Projekte in den Bereichen Ressourcen-, Energie- und Umweltschutz.
Key services
Projektförderung, Green Start-up Förderung, Promotionsstipendien, MOE Fellowship
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, PHP, JavaScript, FontAwesome, Swiper.js, GLightbox
Frameworks
WPML (WordPress Multilingual CMS)
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of defer attribute on scripts
  • No inline sensitive credentials

Analytics and tracking

Services
Plausible Analytics
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
Plausible Analytics
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Content is comprehensive and relevant to environmental funding and research.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  4. Social media presence is strong and consistent.
  5. No explicit privacy or cookie consent banner detected, which could be improved.
  6. No explicit security policy or incident response information published.
  7. Use of modern web technologies and CMS (WordPress).
  8. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a WordPress CMS platform enhanced with WPML for multilingual support, using modern JavaScript libraries such as Swiper.js for sliders and GLightbox for media display. FontAwesome is used for iconography. The hosting infrastructure is supported by Deutsche Telekom name servers, indicating a stable and reputable hosting environment. Performance is moderate with room for optimization, but mobile responsiveness and accessibility are well addressed. SEO is supported by comprehensive meta tags, Open Graph, and JSON-LD structured data. The technical stack is modern and well-maintained, though improvements in security headers and privacy mechanisms would enhance the overall technical robustness.
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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