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Security report for esf.hr

Ministarstvo rada, mirovinskoga sustava, obitelji i socijalne politike · Government · Croatia

High risk. 9 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Network security and 2 other checks.

Security score

44/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The website www.esf.hr serves as the official portal for the European Social Fund (ESF) in Croatia, managed by the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy. It provides comprehensive information on operational programs aimed at employment, social inclusion, education, and good governance. The site targets civil society organizations, cultural institutions, and social service providers, offering project calls, examples, news, and strategic documents. The portal is well-positioned as a government resource supporting EU-funded social initiatives in Croatia. Technically, the site is built on WordPress 5.1.19 with a modern tech stack including jQuery, Google Analytics, and SEO plugins. It demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, though performance is moderate. Hosting is likely provided by CARNET, a reputable Croatian academic network. The site uses HTTPS with a strong SSL configuration but lacks some security headers and explicit cookie consent mechanisms. From a security perspective, the website maintains a solid posture with HTTPS and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, it lacks explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure information. Cookie policy exists but without a consent mechanism, which is a minor GDPR compliance gap. The WHOIS data aligns well with the website's government affiliation, showing consistent registration details and domain age appropriate for the business. Overall, the site is trustworthy, professional, and serves its informational purpose effectively. Strategic improvements include adding security headers, explicit cookie consent, and detailed security and incident response policies to enhance compliance and security maturity.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of esf.hr. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 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

9 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

  2. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: MySQL

      Port 3306 (MySQL) is publicly accessible - MySQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to MySQL using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

  3. 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';…

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Keep watching esf.hr

This scan found 26 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.

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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
62
Security headers
15
Email security
85
DNS health
75
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
25
Average
44

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 · found on this site
  • 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 website operates as a government portal for managing and disseminating information about the European Social Fund programs in Croatia. It holds a strong market position as the official source for ESF-related calls, projects, and documentation. The business model is non-commercial, focused on public service and EU fund management. Revenue streams are government and EU funded. The target customers are civil society organizations, cultural and social institutions, and public stakeholders interested in social development projects. The site demonstrates a robust partnership ecosystem with multiple Croatian ministries and EU bodies. Growth indicators include active project calls and ongoing updates. The portal supports transparency and accessibility in public fund management.

Security posture

The website exhibits a moderate to good security maturity level. HTTPS is enforced with a strong SSL configuration, and no sensitive data is exposed in the HTML content. The use of WordPress and associated plugins suggests regular updates but the detected version is somewhat outdated (5.1.19). No explicit security headers were detected, which is a gap. There is no visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure information, limiting transparency in security management. Cookie policy is present but lacks a consent mechanism, which is a GDPR compliance concern. Overall, the site is secure for informational purposes but could improve in formalizing security policies and controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Add an explicit cookie consent mechanism to comply fully with GDPR requirements.
  3. Publish detailed security and incident response policies including contact channels for reporting security issues.
  4. Regularly update WordPress core and plugins to the latest stable versions to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance transparency by providing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Ministarstvo rada, mirovinskoga sustava, obitelji i socijalne politike
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ministarstvo rada, mirovinskoga sustava, obitelji i socijalne politike
Description
Europski socijalni fond (ESF) website focused on operational programs for human potential development, social inclusion, employment, education, and good governance in Croatia.
Key services
Information dissemination about ESF calls and projects, Project examples and galleries, News and event announcements, Access to strategic and operational documents
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.5.1, Google Analytics, Yoast SEO plugin, Responsive Lightbox, Content Views Query and Display Post Page plugin, Tailored ESF Newsletter plugin, Fotorama slider
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
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 security plugins (implied by WordPress ecosystem)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is an official government portal for the European Social Fund in Croatia.
  2. Content is comprehensive and well-structured with clear navigation.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity detected.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and SEO best practices.
  5. Lacks explicit terms of service and detailed security/incident response policies.
  6. Cookie policy is present but lacks explicit consent mechanism.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress 5.1.19 with a variety of plugins including Yoast SEO, Responsive Lightbox, and Tailored ESF Newsletter. It uses jQuery 3.5.1 and Google Analytics for tracking. The site is hosted likely by CARNET, a Croatian academic network, consistent with the registrar information. Performance is moderate with some modern frontend features like responsive image sliders and accessibility scripts. The site is mobile optimized and includes accessibility features such as font size adjustment and high contrast modes. SEO is well implemented with canonical tags, Open Graph metadata, and structured JSON-LD data. Technical risks include outdated WordPress version and missing security headers.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 44/100High33 findingsView report
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