Skip to main content

Security report for escardio.org

European Society of Cardiology · Healthcare · N/a

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

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) is a leading independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease through education, research, and advocacy. The website serves as a comprehensive platform for cardiology professionals, offering access to guidelines, congresses, eLearning, and community engagement. The ESC maintains a strong market position as a trusted authority in cardiovascular health across Europe and globally. Technically, the website is built on a robust infrastructure using modern web technologies including Bootstrap for responsive design, and integrates multiple analytics and marketing tools such as Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, and Adobe DTM. The site is hosted with performance and security in mind, leveraging Akamai CDN and enforcing HTTPS with strong security headers. From a security perspective, the ESC website demonstrates good practices including HTTPS enforcement, cookie consent management via OneTrust, and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, there is an opportunity to enhance transparency by publishing a dedicated security policy and vulnerability disclosure information. Overall, the ESC website is a professional, secure, and user-friendly platform that effectively supports its mission. Strategic recommendations include improving security transparency, maintaining up-to-date third-party scripts, and enhancing accessibility features to further strengthen trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 100 · Medium
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. 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
    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

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

    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google APIs, Google Ads

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

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

Keep watching escardio.org

This scan found 23 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
52
Security headers
20
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
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

ESC operates as a large non-profit healthcare entity focused on cardiology. Its business model centers on providing education, guidelines, and events to healthcare professionals. The organization benefits from a strong brand and extensive partnerships, including specialized platforms like ESC 365 and ESC eLearning. Revenue streams likely include membership fees, event registrations, and educational content. The target audience includes cardiologists, researchers, and patients interested in cardiovascular health. The organization's digital presence is mature, with consistent branding and comprehensive content supporting its leadership in the cardiology sector.

Security posture

The ESC website exhibits a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and multiple security headers implemented. The presence of a cookie consent mechanism indicates GDPR compliance efforts. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of a publicly accessible security policy or vulnerability disclosure page limits transparency. Incident response contact information is not explicitly provided, which could be improved. Overall, the security maturity is good, suitable for a healthcare non-profit handling sensitive information.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and commitments.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  3. Provide explicit incident response contact details for security issues.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and analytics tools to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance accessibility features to comply with WCAG standards and improve user experience.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
European Society of Cardiology
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
European Society of Cardiology
Description
The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) is an independent, nonprofit organisation aiming to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.
Key services
Cardiology guidelines publication, Conferences and congresses, Educational resources and eLearning, Advocacy and policy shaping
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Twitter Universal Website Tag, Bing Ads, Adobe DTM, OneTrust Cookie Consent
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of modern security headers

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Adobe DTM
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Ads, Bing Ads, Twitter Ads, Facebook Ads
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Twitter Universal Website Tag, Microsoft Clarity
Marketing tools
Adobe DTM, OneTrust Cookie Consent
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 navigation
  2. No WAF or blocking detected
  3. Strong privacy and cookie compliance with OneTrust implementation
  4. Use of multiple reputable analytics and marketing tools
  5. No exposed sensitive data or security vulnerabilities detected
  6. WHOIS data unavailable due to query failure, likely privacy protection
  7. Professional healthcare non-profit organization with global reach
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern tech stack including Bootstrap and jQuery, supported by a CMS platform identified as OpenText Vignette Portal. It integrates multiple analytics and marketing technologies such as Google Tag Manager, Microsoft Clarity, and Adobe DTM. Hosting is supported by Akamai CDN, contributing to moderate to good performance. The site is mobile optimized and SEO friendly with proper meta tags and structured data. Technical debt appears minimal, but continuous monitoring of third-party dependencies is recommended to maintain security and performance.
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 escardio.org. 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 escardio.org.

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.