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Security report for ecal.ch

École cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL) · Education · Switzerland

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

64/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The École cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL) is a prestigious Swiss higher education institution specializing in art and design, with a history dating back to 1821. The website serves as a comprehensive portal for prospective and current students, showcasing detailed program offerings, events, projects, and institutional information. The institution holds a strong market position in art and design education within Switzerland and internationally. Technically, the website employs modern tracking and analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Hotjar, integrates multimedia content via Vimeo, and uses responsive design principles to ensure accessibility across devices. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and CSRF protections in place, though explicit security headers and published security policies are absent. Privacy compliance is partial, with a cookie consent mechanism present but lacking a dedicated privacy policy or terms of service pages. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-maintained, reflecting the institution's reputation.

Scanned

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

6 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 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

    • 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, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

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

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

Keep watching ecal.ch

This scan found 18 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
65
Email security
90
DNS health
80
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
35
Average
64

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

ECAL operates as an essential educational entity within the art and design sector, targeting students and professionals seeking specialized training. Its business model revolves around delivering accredited degree programs (Bachelor, Master, MAS, CAS), fostering applied research, and engaging the community through exhibitions and events. The institution benefits from partnerships with related domains such as ecal-shop.ch and ecal-typefaces.ch, enhancing its ecosystem. The website's content and structure indicate a mature digital presence with active social media engagement, supporting brand visibility and student recruitment. Growth indicators include regular event updates and project showcases. The absence of explicit business contact emails or phone numbers on the site suggests a preference for contact via forms or dedicated contact pages.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security baseline with HTTPS enforced and use of CSRF tokens in forms, reducing risks of common web attacks. However, the lack of explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options represents an area for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The absence of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency and preparedness communication. Privacy compliance gaps exist due to missing privacy and terms of service pages, which could expose the institution to regulatory scrutiny under GDPR or similar frameworks. Overall, the security posture is solid but could be enhanced by adopting best practices and publishing relevant policies.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service pages to improve GDPR compliance and user trust.
  2. Implement and configure security headers such as CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to strengthen web security.
  3. Create and publish a security policy and incident response contact information to enhance transparency and preparedness.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to meet higher standards and improve user experience for all visitors.
  5. Regularly review and audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to ensure privacy compliance and minimize data exposure.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
École cantonale d'art de Lausanne
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
École cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL)
Description
L'école cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL) est une haute école d'art et de design, située à Lausanne, Suisse.
Key services
Art and design education, Bachelor, Master, MAS, CAS programs, Research and applied research projects, Events and exhibitions, Student life and campus facilities
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics (gtag.js), Hotjar, Vimeo embedded video, CSS stylesheets, JavaScript modules
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of CSRF tokens in forms

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Hotjar
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar
Marketing tools
Hotjar
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well maintained.
  2. Content is rich with detailed information about programs, events, and projects.
  3. Strong presence on multiple social media platforms.
  4. No privacy policy or terms of service pages found, which is a compliance gap.
  5. Cookie consent mechanism is implemented.
  6. No explicit security policy or incident response information available.
  7. Use of modern analytics and tracking tools.
  8. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack including Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Hotjar for analytics and user behavior tracking, and Vimeo for video content delivery. CSS and JavaScript modules are used for styling and interactivity. The site is hosted on a Swiss-based media server, likely ensuring good local performance. The HTML structure is valid and SEO optimized with appropriate meta tags and Open Graph data. Mobile optimization is good, with responsive design and viewport settings. Accessibility is basic but could be improved. Performance is moderate, with some heavy media content like videos and images. There is no detected CMS, suggesting a custom or static site generation approach. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a professional and engaging user experience but has room for optimization in accessibility and security.
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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