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Security report for ersar.pt

ERSAR · Government · Portugal

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

ERSAR is the Portuguese Water and Waste Services Regulation Authority, tasked with regulating and supervising water supply and waste services across Portugal. The website serves as an official communication channel providing regulatory information, public consultations, complaint management, and sector data. It targets Portuguese consumers, regulated entities, and government bodies, positioning itself as a national authority with legal powers in its sector. The business model is government-funded and focused on regulatory oversight. Technically, the website is built on Microsoft SharePoint, leveraging standard web technologies including jQuery and modern UI components. The site demonstrates good digital maturity with responsive design, accessibility features, and SEO best practices. Performance is moderate, typical for SharePoint-based sites. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, uses form digest tokens for CSRF protection, and implements cookie consent mechanisms aligned with GDPR. However, explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy are not evident, and there is no visible vulnerability disclosure or incident response information. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and compliant with privacy regulations. It lacks some advanced security disclosures and terms of service documentation but maintains a solid security posture appropriate for a government regulatory entity.

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

  2. 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 Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1

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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
67
Security headers
55
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
10
Average
63

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

ERSAR holds a strong market position as the official Portuguese regulator for water and waste services. Its competitive advantage lies in its legal authority and comprehensive sector oversight. The business model is regulatory and compliance-driven, funded by government and sector fees. The target customers include consumers, service providers, and governmental institutions. The website reflects a mature organization with a clear partnership ecosystem including government portals and complaint platforms. Growth indicators are not explicit but the presence of public consultations and sector data suggests active engagement. Strategic observations include the need for enhanced transparency in security policies and incident response. SecurityPosture: ERSAR demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforcement, CSRF protections, and GDPR-aligned cookie consent. The absence of explicit security policies and vulnerability disclosure channels indicates room for improvement in transparency and incident readiness. No critical vulnerabilities were found, and the site uses standard SharePoint security features. Compliance with GDPR is evident through privacy policies and consent mechanisms. Recommendations include implementing a security.txt file, publishing incident response procedures, and enhancing security headers to improve defense-in-depth.

Security posture

The website exhibits a solid security foundation with HTTPS enabled and SharePoint's built-in security mechanisms such as form digest tokens to prevent CSRF attacks. Cookie consent is implemented, supporting GDPR compliance. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of explicit Content-Security-Policy headers and lack of published security policies or incident response information are gaps. There is no visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page, which could improve transparency and trust. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by adopting additional security best practices and public disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a Content-Security-Policy header to mitigate XSS and related attacks.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page on the website.
  3. Add a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability reporting and disclosure.
  4. Create and publish terms of service to clarify user and service provider obligations.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries to avoid potential vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
ERSAR
Description
ERSAR is the Portuguese Water and Waste Services Regulation Authority, responsible for regulation and supervision of water supply and waste services in Portugal.
Key services
Regulation and supervision of water supply, Regulation and supervision of waste services, Quality control of water, Tariff setting and monitoring, Complaint management, Public consultations and recommendations
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Microsoft SharePoint, jQuery 3.1.0, jQuery UI, Slick Carousel, Select2
Frameworks
SharePoint Framework
Platforms
Microsoft SharePoint Server
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of form digest tokens for CSRF protection in SharePoint forms
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Analytics (gtag.js)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a government regulatory authority for water and waste services in Portugal.
  2. Content is comprehensive and well-structured with clear navigation.
  3. Uses Microsoft SharePoint as CMS platform.
  4. Implements cookie consent and privacy policy in compliance with GDPR.
  5. No signs of security blocking or WAF challenges.
  6. Social media presence on LinkedIn and YouTube.
  7. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in HTML; contact likely via contact page or forms.
  8. No terms of service or explicit security policy pages found.
  9. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Microsoft SharePoint, utilizing standard web technologies including jQuery, jQuery UI, Slick Carousel, and Select2 for enhanced UI components. The platform supports responsive design and accessibility features, with good SEO practices evident in meta tags and structured navigation. Performance is moderate, typical for SharePoint-hosted sites. The technical stack is stable but somewhat dated, suggesting opportunities for modernization to improve speed and user experience. The site uses Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for analytics and tracking, with cookie consent mechanisms in place. No critical technical debt or vulnerabilities were identified in the HTML content.
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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