Skip to main content

Security report for ehess.fr

École des hautes études en sciences sociales · Education · France

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) is a prestigious French academic institution specializing in higher education and research in social sciences. The website reflects a well-established organization with a large community of students and researchers, offering advanced degrees, research programs, and public dissemination of knowledge. The institution maintains a strong presence in academic publishing, events, and international collaborations. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 7 with modern front-end frameworks and integrates multiple multimedia and social media platforms, indicating a mature digital infrastructure. Security posture is good with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent mechanisms in place, though some security headers could be improved. The absence of WHOIS data is notable but likely due to AFNIC registry policies rather than malicious intent. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and compliant with privacy regulations.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
10/ 100 · Critical
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

7 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.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google APIs

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

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

Keep watching ehess.fr

This scan found 22 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
67
Security headers
75
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
10
Average
67

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

EHESS holds a strong market position in European social sciences education and research, supported by partnerships with national research bodies like CNRS. Its business model is non-profit and education-focused, with revenue streams likely from public funding, tuition, and publishing. The target audience includes students, academics, and the general public interested in social sciences. The website's extensive content and multimedia resources support its mission of knowledge dissemination and public engagement. The institution's digital presence is consistent and well-branded, enhancing its credibility and outreach.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a solid security foundation with HTTPS and cookie consent compliance. However, explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options are not evident and should be implemented to enhance protection against common web attacks. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The lack of a visible security policy or incident response contact is a minor gap. Overall, the security posture is good but can be improved with additional headers and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including CSP, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Regularly update Drupal core and modules to mitigate known vulnerabilities.
  3. Publish a security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  4. Add a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
  5. Conduct periodic security audits of third-party scripts and embedded content.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
École des hautes études en sciences sociales
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
École des hautes études en sciences sociales
Description
L'École des hautes études en sciences sociales est un grand établissement français ayant pour mission l'enseignement supérieur et la recherche en sciences sociales. Elle produit et transmet des savoirs sur les sociétés humaines en organisant un dialogue interdisciplinaire permanent entre plusieurs disciplines des sciences humaines et sociales.
Key services
Masters et Doctorats en sciences sociales, Séminaires de recherche, Unités et centres de recherche, Diffusion de savoirs (publications, podcasts, archives, festivals), Formation continue et professionnalisation
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 7, jQuery, Bootstrap, FontAwesome, Google Analytics, Matomo Analytics, SoundCloud embed, YouTube embed, Canal-U embed
Frameworks
Drupal CMS, Bootstrap CSS/JS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS
  • Cookie consent banner with opt-out
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
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
  2. Strong academic and research focus
  3. Multiple official social media and partner links
  4. Good privacy and cookie compliance
  5. No visible security or content blocking issues
  6. WHOIS data unavailable, which is unusual but not necessarily suspicious
  7. Use of Drupal 7 CMS, which is older but still functional
  8. Good SEO and accessibility practices observed
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses Drupal 7 CMS, which is stable but aging, suggesting a future upgrade path should be considered. The front-end leverages Bootstrap and jQuery, providing responsive design and accessibility. Performance is moderate with multiple external resources loaded from trusted CDNs. SEO is well addressed with meta tags, Open Graph, and structured data. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA roles are present. The integration of multimedia content (YouTube, SoundCloud, Canal-U) enriches user experience. Hosting provider details are not explicit, but the domain is .fr and likely hosted in France. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but could benefit from modernization and enhanced security practices.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with ehess.fr. 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 ehess.fr.

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.