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Security report for downtownhouston.org

Downtown Houston · Government · United States

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

Security score

77/100

Risk levelLow

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

Downtown Houston is a community-focused organization promoting Houston's original neighborhood, Downtown. The website serves as a hub for local events, business promotion, and community engagement, targeting residents, visitors, and businesses interested in the area. The domain is well-established since 1997, indicating a mature presence in the local market. Technically, the site uses modern web fonts and icon libraries, with moderate performance and good mobile optimization. However, there is a lack of visible privacy and cookie policies, and no explicit contact information was found in the provided content. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enabled and domain transfer protection, but could be improved by implementing DNSSEC and security headers. Overall, the site is professional and trustworthy but would benefit from enhanced privacy compliance and security transparency.

Scanned

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 downtownhouston.org

This scan found 19 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
75
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
77

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

The organization operates in the government/community sector, focusing on neighborhood promotion and event hosting. Its business model revolves around community engagement and supporting local businesses. The site targets a broad audience including residents, tourists, and business stakeholders. The use of privacy protection in WHOIS is justified given the nature of the organization. No suspicious domains or partners were identified. The website's content and branding are consistent, supporting a strong market position within the Houston area. Growth opportunities may include expanding digital engagement and improving transparency around privacy and security policies.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a basic to moderate security maturity level. HTTPS is enforced, and domain transfer protection is active, which are positive indicators. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security reduces the overall security posture. No incident response or security policy information is publicly available, which may hinder rapid response to security events. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the provided content. Compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations is not evident due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Enhancing these areas would improve the organization's security culture and readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Implement DNSSEC to secure DNS queries and prevent spoofing
  2. Add comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear consent mechanisms
  3. Publish a security policy and incident response contact information on the website
  4. Include security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security
  5. Provide clear and accessible contact information including emails and phone numbers for business and security inquiries
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Downtown Houston
Description
Houston's original neighborhood, Downtown is the open-hearted home to our biggest celebrations and treasured hidden gems, a place to explore and invent, taste and savor, get energized and revived.
Key services
Neighborhood promotion, Event hosting, Community engagement, Business support
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Font Awesome 6 Pro, Swiper.js, Google Fonts
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is accessible and not blocked by WAF
  2. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found in the provided content
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML snippet
  4. Use of professional fonts and icon libraries indicates moderate technical maturity
  5. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found
  6. WHOIS data shows privacy protection but domain age supports legitimacy
  7. External links mostly to trusted CDNs and font providers
  8. No analytics or tracking scripts detected in provided content
  9. No advertising or affiliate programs detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack including Font Awesome 6 Pro for icons, Swiper.js for sliders, and Google Fonts for typography. It is built on CityCMS, a specialized content management system for city and community websites. Hosting details are not explicit but DNS servers indicate use of dnsowl.com. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and basic accessibility features. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. There is no evidence of heavy analytics or tracking scripts, which may benefit privacy but limits marketing insights. Technical debt appears low, but improvements in security headers and privacy compliance are recommended to modernize the infrastructure further.
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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