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Security report for esafety.gov.au

eSafety Commissioner · Government · Australia

Partial score · DNS & email only

69/100

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

The eSafety Commissioner website is a comprehensive Australian government resource dedicated to promoting online safety and providing support for individuals experiencing online abuse or bullying. The site offers extensive educational materials, research, and reporting mechanisms tailored to diverse audiences including educators, parents, young people, seniors, and various community groups. It holds a strong market position as the national authority on online safety in Australia, leveraging a government domain and the GovCMS platform for content delivery. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10 and GovCMS, incorporating modern web technologies such as Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and Monsido heatmaps for analytics and user experience optimization. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, although some security headers could be more explicitly implemented. HTTPS is enforced, and privacy considerations like IP anonymization in analytics are present. From a security perspective, the site maintains a solid posture with encrypted communications and secure form handling inherent to Drupal. However, it lacks visible security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms, which are recommended for enhanced transparency and trust. Privacy compliance is moderate, with a privacy policy present but no clear cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professionally designed, and well-maintained, serving an essential public function. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security header implementation, introducing cookie consent for GDPR compliance, publishing a security policy, and establishing a vulnerability disclosure process to further strengthen security and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
6of 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

2 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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.

    • Critical

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • 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

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

Keep watching esafety.gov.au

This scan found 8 issues across 4 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

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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
0
Email security
100
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
69

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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

The eSafety Commissioner operates as a government entity focused on online safety regulation, education, and support services within Australia. Its business model centers on public service delivery rather than commercial revenue generation. The agency targets a broad demographic, including vulnerable groups and industry stakeholders, positioning itself as a key player in national digital safety initiatives. The website's extensive research publications and community engagement programs indicate a mature and well-resourced operation. Partnerships with other government and community organizations are implied through content and program references, although no explicit partner domains were identified. The site’s use of GovCMS and government domain underscores its official status and operational legitimacy.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, anonymized analytics, and secure form handling via Drupal. However, explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options are not clearly present in the analyzed content, representing an area for improvement. The absence of a published security policy, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms limits transparency and may hinder rapid incident handling. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content. Overall, the site aligns with good security practices expected of a government platform but would benefit from enhanced security documentation and header implementation.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Introduce a cookie consent mechanism to comply with GDPR and enhance user privacy transparency.
  3. Publish a detailed security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  4. Establish and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and tracking tools to minimize privacy risks and ensure compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
eSafety Commissioner
Description
eSafety can help Australians experiencing online bullying or abuse to take action or make a complaint. Helping Australians have safer, more positive experiences online.
Key services
Online safety education, Reporting and complaint handling for online abuse, Research on online safety issues, Industry regulation and consultation, Support for diverse community groups
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, GovCMS, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Pinterest tracking, Monsido heatmaps
Frameworks
Drupal
Platforms
GovCMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Anonymize IP in Google Analytics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of secure forms with CSRF tokens (implied by Drupal)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Monsido Heatmaps
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Pinterest, Facebook Pixel
Marketing tools
Monsido Heatmaps
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a government-run online safety resource for Australians
  2. Content is comprehensive and well-structured
  3. No signs of blocking or WAF interference
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the provided HTML snippet
  5. Strong use of modern web technologies and tracking for analytics
  6. Privacy and cookie policies exist but cookie consent mechanism is not evident
  7. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy
  8. WHOIS data is minimal due to privacy and policy restrictions
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 and hosted on the GovCMS platform, indicating a robust and government-supported infrastructure. It integrates multiple third-party analytics and tracking services such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Pinterest tracking, and Monsido heatmaps, which support data-driven improvements but require careful privacy management. The site demonstrates good mobile responsiveness, accessibility, and SEO optimization. Performance is moderate, likely influenced by the number of external scripts. The technical stack is modern and well-maintained, though opportunities exist to optimize security headers and reduce tracking footprint for enhanced privacy.
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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