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Security report for elsevier.com

Elsevier · Healthcare · N/a

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Elsevier is a globally recognized leader in providing advanced information and decision support in science and healthcare. The company offers a broad range of products and services including ScienceDirect, Scopus, ClinicalKey, and AI-powered tools, targeting researchers, academics, healthcare professionals, and industry stakeholders. The website reflects a mature digital presence with professional design, clear navigation, and comprehensive content tailored to its audience. Technically, the site leverages modern frameworks like Next.js and integrates performance monitoring tools such as New Relic and Google Tag Manager, ensuring fast load times and good user experience across devices. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement, security headers, and cookie consent mechanisms, though explicit security policies and incident response information are not publicly visible. Overall, Elsevier's website demonstrates high professionalism and trustworthiness, supporting its market position as a leading information services provider in healthcare and science.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 100 · Low
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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  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

      SSL Certificate Expires Soon

      SSL certificate expires in 21 days

      What to do: Renew SSL certificate before expiration

      • NIS2 21(2)(h)
      • IR 2024/2690 9.2(c): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 9.2(c): Cryptography
      • NIST SC-17: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-17: Public Key Infrastructure Certificates
    • 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

  3. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Potential Subdomain Takeover

      Subdomain staging.elsevier.com points to unregistered service stagingstaticelb-659747717.eu-west-1.elb.amazonaws.com

      What to do: Remove or fix CNAME record to prevent subdomain takeover

      • WSTG-CONF-10
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching elsevier.com

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

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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

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

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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
47
Security headers
40
Email security
85
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
70

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention elsevier.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
891,342
Employees
103
Customers
890,431
Third parties
808
Weak passwords
11%

Latest record dated 2026-06-18 · 775 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for elsevier.com.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –id.elsevier.com2026-06-18
  • –elsevier.com2026-06-17
  • –editorial.elsevier.com2026-06-12
  • –id.elsevier.com2026-06-12
  • –account.elsevier.com2026-06-12

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Elsevier operates in the healthcare, education, and technology sectors, focusing on scientific publishing and information services. Its business model revolves around subscription-based access to research content, analytics, and decision support tools. The company targets a diverse audience including academic institutions, government bodies, healthcare providers, and industry professionals. Elsevier's extensive product portfolio and global reach position it strongly in the market. The website's content and structure indicate a well-established brand with consistent messaging and a focus on advancing human progress through knowledge. While direct contact information is limited on the homepage, the presence of detailed product pages and resources suggests a comprehensive ecosystem supporting its customers. The absence of WHOIS data is unusual but likely due to privacy or registry policies rather than malicious intent.

Security posture

The website employs robust security measures including HTTPS, modern security headers like Content Security Policy, and cookie consent banners aligned with GDPR compliance. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the site lacks publicly accessible security policies, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure programs, which are best practices for transparency and trust. The integration of third-party analytics and monitoring tools is handled with consent mechanisms, mitigating privacy risks. Overall, the security posture is strong but could be enhanced by publishing explicit security and incident response information and establishing a vulnerability disclosure channel.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page to improve transparency.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  3. Add clear contact information for security incidents or abuse reporting.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to meet or exceed standards for all users.
  5. Regularly review and audit third-party scripts and libraries for security vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Elsevier
Description
Elsevier provides advanced information and decision support to accelerate progress in science and healthcare worldwide.
Key services
ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey, ClinicalKey AI, Complete Anatomy, Reaxys, Embase
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Next.js, New Relic (performance monitoring), Google Tag Manager
Frameworks
Next.js
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Content Security Policy
  • Cookie consent mechanism
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
New Relic, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
New Relic
Transparency
basic

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 professional design.
  2. No signs of WAF or security blocking detected.
  3. Comprehensive cookie and privacy policies with consent mechanisms.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the homepage content.
  5. Use of modern web technologies and performance monitoring tools.
  6. Strong branding and consistent messaging focused on healthcare and scientific information.
  7. No adult or explicit content detected.
  8. WHOIS data is missing or unavailable, which is unusual but not necessarily suspicious.
Technical notes

Notes

Elsevier's website is built on a modern tech stack including React and Next.js, enabling server-side rendering and optimized performance. The use of New Relic for performance monitoring and Google Tag Manager for analytics indicates a mature approach to site management. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility considerations. SEO is supported by comprehensive meta tags and Open Graph data. No CMS was explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary content management solution. Hosting details are not explicitly available but the performance and security configurations suggest a reliable hosting environment. Opportunities exist to improve technical documentation of security practices and to further enhance accessibility compliance.
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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