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Security report for defence.gov.au

Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Defence · Government · Australia

Partial score · DNS & email only

58/100

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

The Department of Defence website serves as the official online presence of the Australian Government's defence agency. It provides comprehensive information on defence operations, jobs, industry engagement, and news relevant to Australian Defence Force members, families, and industry partners. The site is well-branded with official government insignia and structured data confirming its government affiliation. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 and hosted on the GovCMS platform, leveraging modern web technologies and analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Tag Manager. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though explicit security headers and cookie consent mechanisms could be improved. The absence of WHOIS data is consistent with Australian domain privacy policies for government domains, and the .gov.au TLD strongly supports legitimacy. Overall, the site demonstrates high professionalism, good user experience, and trustworthy content.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
Checks completed
6of 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. 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.

    • Critical

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  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, YouTube

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

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

Keep watching defence.gov.au

This scan found 13 issues across 5 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

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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
0
Email security
70
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
58

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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 Department of Defence holds a critical position as a government agency responsible for national security and defence. Its market position is authoritative and essential, serving multiple audiences including military personnel, industry stakeholders, and the general public. The business model is non-commercial, focused on public service and national interest. The website supports recruitment, industry collaboration, and public communication. Partnerships with subsidiary domains such as navy.gov.au, army.gov.au, and airforce.gov.au reflect a broad ecosystem within the defence sector. The site’s content and structure indicate a mature digital presence with ongoing updates and engagement.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, anonymized IP tracking in analytics, and no exposed sensitive data. However, explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options are not clearly visible in the HTML source and should be confirmed. There is no visible security or incident response policy, nor a vulnerability disclosure program, which are areas for improvement. The lack of a cookie consent banner may pose compliance risks under privacy regulations. Overall, the site is secure but could enhance transparency and compliance with modern security best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publicly document a comprehensive security policy and incident response contact information.
  2. Add explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection.
  3. Introduce a visible cookie consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and improve user trust.
  4. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to minimize privacy risks and ensure compliance.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Defence
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Defence
Description
Australian Government Department of Defence; Protecting Australia and its national interests. Information for Defence jobs & careers, ADF members & families, Defence news & operations, Defence Industry & more.
Key services
Defence operations, Jobs and careers in Defence, Industry engagement and procurement, Defence news and media releases, Support for ADF members and families
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, GovCMS, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, FontAwesome
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Platforms
GovCMS (Australian Government hosting platform)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Anonymized IP tracking in analytics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official Australian Government Department of Defence website
  2. Comprehensive content covering defence activities, jobs, news, and industry
  3. Consistent branding with Australian Government crest and logos
  4. Use of modern CMS (Drupal 10) and GovCMS platform
  5. Good SEO and accessibility practices
  6. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  7. No explicit privacy or cookie consent banners detected
  8. WHOIS data is not publicly available due to policy restrictions
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern Drupal 10 CMS integrated with the Australian Government's GovCMS platform, ensuring robust hosting and compliance with government standards. It uses Google Analytics and Tag Manager for user tracking and performance monitoring. The site is mobile-optimized with good accessibility features and SEO practices. Performance is moderate, likely due to rich media content and extensive navigation. The technical infrastructure is solid, but opportunities exist to improve security headers and privacy compliance mechanisms. The site’s architecture supports scalability and content management suitable for a large government entity.
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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