Skip to main content

Security report for ecmwf.int

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts · Government · United Kingdom

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an established international governmental organization specializing in numerical weather prediction and meteorological research. The website serves as both a research institute and an operational service providing global weather forecasts and data to its member and cooperating states. It holds a strong market position as a leading center with one of the largest supercomputer facilities and meteorological archives worldwide. The target audience includes governmental members, researchers, and the broader meteorological community. Technically, the website is built on Drupal CMS (versions 9 and 10), incorporating modern web technologies such as Google Tag Manager, Mouseflow analytics, AddToAny sharing tools, and MathJax for mathematical content. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, although performance is moderate. The design is professional and consistent with the organization's branding. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and includes tracking and analytics scripts but lacks visible security headers and published security policies such as privacy, cookie, or incident response information. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the provided content. The domain is a trusted .int domain created in 1997, consistent with the organization's history and legitimacy. Overall, the website is trustworthy and professionally maintained but would benefit from publishing comprehensive privacy and cookie policies, security disclosures, and incident response contacts to enhance compliance and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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

5 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 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 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

  3. 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 ecmwf.int

This scan found 21 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

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
40
Email security
75
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
72

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

ECMWF operates as a governmental research and operational entity focused on medium-range weather forecasting. Its business model revolves around providing numerical weather prediction data and research outputs to member states and the wider meteorological community. The organization leverages its advanced supercomputing infrastructure to maintain a competitive advantage in global weather forecasting. The website targets governmental agencies, researchers, and meteorological professionals, supporting international collaboration. The absence of commercial advertising or affiliate programs aligns with its governmental and research-oriented nature. The organization maintains a strong partnership ecosystem with member and cooperating states, although no explicit partner domains were identified beyond its own subdomains.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security posture with HTTPS enabled and no immediate signs of vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, the lack of security headers and absence of published security policies such as privacy, cookie, and incident response information represent compliance gaps. The use of third-party analytics and tracking scripts introduces potential privacy considerations. There is no evidence of a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file. Incident response readiness and security culture indicators are not publicly visible. To improve security maturity, ECMWF should implement recommended HTTP security headers, publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies, and provide clear incident response contacts.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with GDPR compliance details.
  2. Implement and configure HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Establish and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Provide clear incident response contact information, including security and abuse email addresses.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks and ensure compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
Description
ECMWF is the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. We are both a research institute and a 24/7 operational service, producing global numerical weather predictions and other data for our Member and Co-operating States and the broader community. The Centre has one of the largest supercomputer facilities and meteorological data archives in the world
Key services
Global numerical weather predictions, Meteorological data archives, Research in numerical weather prediction, Operational weather forecasting services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 9, Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, Mouseflow, AddToAny sharing, AOS (Animate On Scroll) library, MathJax
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
50/100

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Mouseflow
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Mouseflow
Marketing tools
AddToAny sharing
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and maintained using Drupal CMS
  2. Content is focused on meteorological research and operational weather forecasting
  3. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies were found in the provided HTML content
  4. Multiple external tracking and analytics scripts are used
  5. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the provided content
  6. No explicit security or incident response policies published
  7. Use of official .int domain supports trust and legitimacy
  8. No signs of WAF or content blocking detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern Drupal CMS platform (versions 9 and 10), utilizing JavaScript libraries such as MathJax for rendering mathematical content and AOS for animations. It integrates Google Tag Manager and Mouseflow for analytics and user behavior tracking, as well as AddToAny for social sharing. The site is mobile optimized and accessible, with good SEO metadata including Open Graph tags. Performance is moderate, likely influenced by the inclusion of multiple external scripts. No hosting provider details were explicitly found. The site uses a canonical URL and favicon for branding consistency. There is an opportunity to improve technical security by adding missing security headers and enhancing privacy compliance mechanisms.
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. 73/100Medium28 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with ecmwf.int. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review ecmwf.int.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.