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Security report for doaks.org

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection · Education · United States

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection is a prestigious non-profit educational institution affiliated with Harvard University, specializing in Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian studies. It offers fellowships, research support, exhibitions, and public access to its museum and gardens. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content and a professional design, targeting scholars, researchers, and the general public interested in cultural and historical studies. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including Plone CMS, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager, ensuring good performance and accessibility. Security posture is strong with HTTPS and no visible vulnerabilities, though improvements can be made by adding security headers and publishing security policies. Privacy compliance is partial, lacking visible cookie consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is trustworthy and well-maintained, though WHOIS data is unavailable, likely due to privacy protection.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of doaks.org. View the latest report

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

8 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 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';…

  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

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

Keep watching doaks.org

This scan found 26 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
67
Security headers
20
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
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

Dumbarton Oaks holds a strong market position as a specialized research and cultural institution with a clear focus on academic disciplines supported by its founders and Harvard University. Its business model is non-profit, relying on fellowships, educational programming, and public engagement. The organization maintains a robust partnership ecosystem through its affiliation with Harvard and active social media presence. Growth indicators include ongoing events, exhibitions, and digital resources. The website supports its mission with rich content and educational outreach, positioning it as a leader in its niche academic sectors.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security foundation with enforced HTTPS and no exposed sensitive data. However, it lacks several security best practices such as security headers (CSP, X-Frame-Options) and a published security policy or incident response contact. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file is present, which could improve transparency and trust. The absence of a cookie consent banner may also pose compliance risks under GDPR or similar regulations. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced with additional policies and technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a visible cookie consent banner to improve privacy compliance.
  2. Publish a comprehensive security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to enhance protection.
  4. Consider creating and publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to foster transparency.
  5. Regularly review and update WHOIS information to ensure domain registration transparency.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
Description
Dumbarton Oaks supports international research and learning in Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian studies through fellowships, internships, meetings, exhibitions, and publications. It offers public access to its historic gardens, museum collections, and music room, and disseminates knowledge via online resources and educational programming.
Key services
Fellowships and internships, Research support, Public exhibitions and events, Educational resources, Museum and garden visits
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Maps API, jQuery, Plone CMS, Patternslib, Jazkarta Tesserae, Leaflet
Frameworks
Plone
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google Tag Manager for controlled script loading

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Marketing tools
Pardot (marketing automation)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and no blocking detected.
  2. WHOIS data is unavailable due to malformed request; no registrar or registrant info extracted.
  3. Strong affiliation with Harvard University enhances trustworthiness.
  4. No explicit privacy or cookie consent banners detected, which may impact compliance.
  5. Use of modern web technologies and CMS (Plone) indicates good technical maturity.
  6. Social media presence is robust across major platforms.
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy found.
  8. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML content.
  9. Physical address is clearly stated in the footer.
  10. No signs of adult or unsafe content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Plone CMS platform, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and Patternslib, and integrates Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing. It uses Google Maps API for map features. The site is mobile-optimized with good accessibility features and SEO meta tags. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts and optimized images. There is no indication of outdated or vulnerable libraries. The technical infrastructure supports a professional and user-friendly experience but could benefit from enhanced security headers and privacy controls.
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. 59/100Medium35 findingsView report
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