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Security report for digitalcourage.social

Digitalcourage e.V. · Technology · Germany

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Digitalcourage e.V. operates digitalcourage.social, a Mastodon instance providing decentralized social media services focused on privacy and community engagement. The organization positions itself as a non-profit entity supporting a respectful and privacy-conscious social network environment, charging a nominal annual fee to sustain operations. The website is well-structured, with clear contact and legal information, and integrates modern Mastodon technology (version 4.3.8) to deliver its services. The technical infrastructure leverages ActivityPub federation and relays to enhance the user experience and network connectivity. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer protections in place, though DNSSEC is not enabled, representing a minor security gap. Privacy compliance is good, with a privacy policy present and GDPR considerations addressed, but lacks a cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and aligns well with its non-profit mission.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of digitalcourage.social. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
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

3 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.

    • 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

  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

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

Keep watching digitalcourage.social

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
72
Security headers
75
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
73

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 digitalcourage.social, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
9
Employees
0
Customers
9
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
11%

1 subdomain 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 digitalcourage.social.

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

Digitalcourage e.V. occupies a niche in the decentralized social media market, targeting users interested in privacy and social activism. Its business model relies on community support through a small prepaid fee and donations, reflecting a sustainable non-profit approach. The organization benefits from clear branding, legal transparency, and membership in federated server agreements, enhancing trust and collaboration within the Fediverse. The absence of advertising and tracking tools aligns with its privacy-centric values. The company’s operations are based in Germany, with a small organizational size and a focus on technology and non-profit sectors. Growth potential lies in expanding its user base within privacy-conscious communities and leveraging partnerships with federated networks.

Security posture

The security maturity of digitalcourage.social is moderate to good. The site enforces HTTPS and uses clientTransferProhibited domain status to prevent unauthorized domain transfers. The moderation team does not have access to user IP addresses, enhancing user privacy. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, which could improve domain name system security. No explicit security policies or incident response contacts are published, which could be improved to enhance transparency and readiness. The absence of cookie consent mechanisms may be a compliance gap depending on cookie usage. No vulnerable libraries or exposed sensitive data were detected. Overall, the security posture supports the privacy-focused mission but could benefit from formalized policies and additional technical safeguards.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen domain security and prevent DNS spoofing.
  2. Publish a formal security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Implement a cookie consent mechanism if cookies are used to ensure compliance with privacy regulations.
  4. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Maintain and regularly update the Mastodon platform and dependencies to mitigate vulnerabilities and improve performance.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Digitalcourage e.V.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Digitalcourage e.V.
Description
digitalcourage.social is a decentralized social media Mastodon instance operated by Digitalcourage e.V. for the public good, charging a small annual fee to sustain operations.
Key services
Mastodon social media hosting, Privacy-focused federated social networking
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Mastodon 4.3.8, JavaScript, ActivityPub, SEPA payment integration (implied)
Frameworks
Mastodon, React
Platforms
Fediverse
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • No IP address exposure to moderators
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status
  • Use of ActivityPub relays for federation

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a Mastodon instance about page operated by a German non-profit
  2. Clear contact and legal information provided
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  4. No cookie consent mechanism detected
  5. No explicit security or incident response policies published
  6. Uses modern Mastodon platform version 4.3.8
  7. No advertising or tracking detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website runs on Mastodon version 4.3.8, a modern and actively maintained decentralized social media platform. The front-end uses JavaScript and React frameworks, ensuring a responsive and interactive user experience. The site is mobile-optimized and includes proper meta tags for SEO and social sharing (Open Graph). Hosting details are not explicitly stated, but DNS uses schlundtech.de name servers. Performance is moderate, with no major issues detected. Accessibility is basic but functional. The site lacks cookie consent mechanisms and explicit security headers, which could be improved. Overall, the technical implementation is solid and appropriate for the service offered, with opportunities for enhancement in security and privacy compliance.
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. 77/100Low27 findingsView report
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