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Security report for ecu.edu.au

Edith Cowan University · Education · Australia

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

75/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Edith Cowan University (ECU) is a prominent Australian public university specializing in high-quality teaching and research. The website reflects a well-established institution with a strong market position as a top public university in Australia, offering a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, research opportunities, and industry engagement. The university targets future students, researchers, industry partners, and alumni, emphasizing accessibility and comprehensive educational services. The digital presence is professional, with consistent branding and extensive content tailored to diverse audiences.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 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

4 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
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching ecu.edu.au

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.

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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
52
Security headers
80
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
Average
75

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

ECU operates as a large educational entity within the Australian higher education sector. Its business model focuses on delivering academic programs, research collaborations, and community engagement. The university leverages partnerships with authorized agents and event platforms to enhance student recruitment and engagement. The website's structured data and SEO practices indicate a mature digital marketing strategy. The institution's reputation is supported by consistent 5-star ratings and global rankings among young universities, reinforcing its competitive advantage and growth potential.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with strong SSL configuration, ensuring secure communications. While some standard security headers are not explicitly detected, the site follows good practices by avoiding exposure of sensitive data and controlling third-party scripts via Google Tag Manager. The absence of a cookie consent mechanism is a minor compliance gap given the tracking technologies in use. No vulnerabilities or malicious indicators were found. Overall, the security posture is solid but could be enhanced by implementing additional HTTP headers and explicit privacy controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a comprehensive cookie consent banner to comply with privacy regulations and inform users about tracking.
  2. Add and verify security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen defense against common web attacks.
  3. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  4. Publish a clear security policy and incident response information to improve transparency and trust.
  5. Consider deploying a security.txt file and vulnerability disclosure program to encourage responsible reporting.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Edith Cowan University
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Edith Cowan University
Description
Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia. ECU is Australia's top public university for teaching quality. We offer undergraduate and postgraduate courses and research opportunities.
Key services
Undergraduate courses, Postgraduate courses, Research opportunities, Online study, Scholarships, Industry engagement
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Font Awesome 6 Pro, Splide.js (carousel), Salesforce Embedded Service, Google Fonts (Barlow), CSS3, HTML5
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, FullStory
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
Google DoubleClick, Google Ads, TikTok Ads
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, FullStory
Marketing tools
Salesforce Live Agent, Evergage
Transparency
good

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 comprehensive and targeted to multiple audiences including future students and researchers
  3. Strong use of structured data and SEO best practices
  4. No signs of phishing or malware
  5. No visible security policy or incident response information publicly available
  6. No cookie consent banner detected despite use of tracking scripts
  7. WHOIS data is limited due to auDA policy but domain is consistent with Australian educational institution
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a proprietary ECU WebCMS platform, utilizing modern web technologies including HTML5, CSS3, Google Fonts, Font Awesome 6 Pro icons, and JavaScript libraries such as Splide.js for carousels. It integrates Google Tag Manager and Analytics for tracking, along with Salesforce Live Agent for customer engagement. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization and accessibility features, with structured data enhancing SEO. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in resource loading and caching. The technical infrastructure supports a robust and user-friendly digital experience aligned with institutional goals.
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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