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Security report for elsevier.es

Elsevier · Education · 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 global information analytics company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content and services. The website presents a professional and comprehensive digital presence targeting academic institutions, healthcare professionals, and industry researchers. It offers a broad portfolio of products such as ScienceDirect, Scopus, and ClinicalKey, positioning itself as a leader in the information analytics market. The technical infrastructure leverages modern web technologies including Next.js and integrates performance and user interaction monitoring via New Relic and Google Tag Manager, indicating a mature digital strategy. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement and multiple security headers, though explicit incident response and security policy pages are not evident. Overall, the website demonstrates high professionalism, good privacy compliance, and a trustworthy user experience.

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 28 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.es

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
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

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 education, healthcare, and industry sectors, providing information analytics and publishing services. Its business model revolves around delivering high-quality scientific content and analytics tools to researchers, clinicians, and industry professionals. The company maintains a strong market position with globally recognized products and a consistent brand presence. The website reflects a large enterprise scale with extensive product offerings and multilingual support. Partnerships and related domains such as ScienceDirect and Scopus reinforce its ecosystem. The absence of direct contact information on the main site suggests a focus on digital self-service and enterprise client engagement.

Security posture

The website exhibits a robust security posture with HTTPS enabled and comprehensive security headers implemented. There is no evidence of exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries in the HTML content. The presence of cookie consent mechanisms and privacy policies indicates compliance with GDPR and related regulations. However, the lack of visible security contact information or a dedicated incident response page limits transparency. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information was found. Overall, the site follows best practices but could improve by publishing explicit security policies and contact channels.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page with clear contact channels.
  2. Implement and publicize a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosures.
  3. Enhance accessibility features to meet or exceed WCAG standards.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies for security vulnerabilities.
  5. Provide clearer business contact information to improve user trust and support.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Elsevier
Description
Elsevier es una empresa global de análisis de información que ayuda a progresar en la ciencia, mejorar la atención médica y mejorar el desempeño.
Key services
ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey, Reaxys, Embase, Complete Anatomy
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React (Next.js), New Relic monitoring, Google Tag Manager, Web Vitals and Performance APIs
Frameworks
Next.js
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Security headers present
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure cookies and consent mechanisms

Analytics and tracking

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

Advertising

Tracking pixels
New Relic
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 professional design.
  2. Strong focus on scientific, academic, healthcare, and industry sectors.
  3. Comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and performance monitoring tools.
  5. No visible security or privacy policy pages explicitly for incident response or DPO contacts.
  6. No exposed contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  7. No signs of adult or questionable content.
  8. WHOIS data unavailable, which is unusual but not uncommon for large enterprises using privacy services.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using Next.js, a React framework optimized for server-side rendering and performance. It employs New Relic for monitoring and Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing tags. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility considerations. Performance is fast with preloading of critical assets and efficient resource management. No CMS is explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary content management solution. Hosting provider details are not disclosed. The technical stack reflects a modern, enterprise-grade web infrastructure with a focus on user experience and operational monitoring.
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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