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Security report for dot.gov

U.S. Department of Transportation · Government · United States

Partial score · DNS & email only

61/100

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

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is a federal government agency responsible for overseeing national transportation policy, infrastructure, safety, and innovation. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for information on various transportation sectors including aviation, highways, railroads, maritime, and public transit. It targets a broad audience including American citizens, businesses, and government stakeholders. The DOT operates as an essential government entity with a large enterprise footprint, providing key services such as grants, consumer protection, and research. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10 CMS and integrates modern analytics and tracking tools like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and the Digital Analytics Program. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and demonstrates good SEO practices. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and a published vulnerability disclosure policy, though some security headers could be improved. Privacy compliance is well addressed with a comprehensive privacy policy, though cookie consent mechanisms are not explicitly present. Overall, the DOT website reflects a mature digital infrastructure with consistent branding and high trustworthiness. The lack of WHOIS data is typical for .gov domains, which are government controlled and thus inherently trustworthy. The site is free from adult or questionable content and provides clear contact information and social media presence. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, implementing cookie consent, and publishing incident response contacts to further strengthen security and compliance.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of dot.gov. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
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

3 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 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

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

Keep watching dot.gov

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

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
0
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
61

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 DOT holds a dominant position as the federal authority on transportation in the United States. Its business model is government-funded and focused on regulatory oversight, infrastructure investment, and public service. The agency benefits from a broad partnership ecosystem including multiple operating administrations such as FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, and others. Revenue streams are primarily government appropriations and grants. The target customer segments include American citizens, transportation industry stakeholders, and policymakers. Growth indicators include ongoing infrastructure initiatives and technology transformation priorities. The DOT's operations are transparent and supported by extensive public communications and digital engagement.

Security posture

The DOT website exhibits a strong security posture with mandatory HTTPS, anonymized IP tracking in analytics, and a published vulnerability disclosure policy. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represents an area for improvement. Incident response contact information is not publicly available, which could hinder rapid vulnerability reporting. Compliance with privacy regulations is evident but could be enhanced with a cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the security maturity is high for a government site, with minor gaps that can be addressed to improve resilience and trust.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply fully with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  3. Publish clear incident response and security contact information to facilitate vulnerability reporting.
  4. Consider adding a security.txt file to standardize security disclosure communications.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks and improve performance.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
U.S. Department of Transportation
Description
To improve the quality of life for all American people and communities, from rural to urban, and to increase the productivity and competitiveness of American workers and businesses.
Key services
Transportation policy and regulation, Infrastructure investment, Safety oversight, Grants and funding, Consumer protection, Research and technology
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, FontAwesome, USA.gov search integration, Qualtrics feedback tool, js-cookie
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Anonymize IP in Google Analytics
  • Vulnerability disclosure policy published
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Digital Analytics Program (DAP)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Digital Analytics Program (DAP)
Marketing tools
Qualtrics Website Feedback
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official US government transportation website with .gov domain
  2. Comprehensive navigation and content covering multiple transportation sectors
  3. Strong presence of privacy and security policies
  4. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. Clear contact information including phone and physical address
  7. Social media presence on official platforms
  8. No WAF or blocking detected, full content accessible
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by Drupal 10 CMS, leveraging modern front-end libraries such as FontAwesome for icons and Google Tag Manager for analytics management. It integrates multiple Google Analytics properties and the Digital Analytics Program for federal analytics compliance. The site uses responsive design techniques ensuring excellent mobile optimization and accessibility. Performance is moderate, likely due to multiple analytics scripts and external resources. The infrastructure appears stable and professionally maintained, with opportunities to optimize loading speed and enhance security headers. No hosting provider details were explicitly found in the HTML content.
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. 49/100High18 findings · partial scanView report
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