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Security report for ecu.edu

East Carolina University · Education · United States

Low risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view.

Security score

83/100

Risk levelLow

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

East Carolina University (ECU) is a large public educational institution based in Greenville, North Carolina, offering a wide range of academic programs, research initiatives, and vibrant campus life. The website reflects its status as an R1 research institution with strong branding and comprehensive resources targeting students, faculty, alumni, and other stakeholders. The digital presence is built on a modern WordPress CMS with React and Bootstrap frameworks, integrating analytics and search tools to enhance user experience. The site is well-structured, mobile-optimized, and accessible, providing clear navigation and rich content. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and no visible vulnerabilities, though explicit security headers and cookie consent mechanisms could be improved. WHOIS data is missing or inaccessible for the exact queried domain, which is unusual for a major university but likely due to query specifics. Overall, the website demonstrates professionalism, trustworthiness, and technical maturity appropriate for a major educational institution.

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

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 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, YouTube

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

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

Keep watching ecu.edu

This scan found 13 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
95
Security headers
95
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
83

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 in the education sector with a focus on higher education and research. It serves a diverse audience including future and current students, faculty, staff, alumni, military personnel, and online learners. The university holds notable rankings and certifications, enhancing its market position. The business model centers on academic delivery, research, community engagement, and student services. Partnerships with domains handling admissions, donations, learning management, and IT support indicate a mature ecosystem. The website content and structure support recruitment, engagement, and information dissemination effectively, reflecting a well-established institution with a large operational scale.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with a good SSL configuration and integrates security best practices such as nonce usage in scripts and no exposed sensitive data. However, explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options are not clearly present in the analyzed content. There is no visible security policy or incident response contact information, and no vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file was found. The use of third-party analytics and scripts is standard but requires ongoing monitoring for vulnerabilities. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by publishing explicit security policies and improving privacy compliance mechanisms.

Recommendations

  1. Publish and enforce security headers such as CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Implement a visible cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and enhance user privacy transparency.
  3. Provide a dedicated security policy page and incident response contact information to improve trust and readiness.
  4. Consider publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and plugins for vulnerabilities and update them promptly.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
East Carolina University
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
East Carolina University
Description
Official site of East Carolina University (ECU), Greenville, NC—innovative academics, vibrant campus life, commitment to success.
Key services
Academic programs, Research, Campus life, Online education, Community engagement
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.8.1, Bootstrap 5.1.3, React 18.3.1, Google Tag Manager, Google Custom Search Engine, Slick Carousel
Frameworks
Bootstrap, React
Platforms
WordPress
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 with nonce
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager, Siteimprove Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Siteimprove Analytics
Marketing tools
Google Custom Search Engine
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and navigation
  2. No WAF or blocking detected
  3. WHOIS data is missing or not found for the exact queried domain
  4. Strong branding and trust signals consistent with a major university
  5. No explicit privacy or cookie consent banner detected
  6. Multiple external trusted domains linked
  7. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress 6.8.1 with Bootstrap 5.1.3 and React 18.3.1, indicating a modern and flexible technology stack. It uses Google Tag Manager and Google Custom Search Engine for analytics and search functionality. The site includes accessibility features and is mobile-optimized with good SEO practices such as meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Performance is moderate, with some heavy images in sliders but overall responsive design. The technical infrastructure supports a large-scale educational institution's needs, though hosting provider details are not explicit. Opportunities exist to improve performance optimization and security header implementation.
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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