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Security report for excelia-group.fr

Excelia Group · Education · France

Medium risk. 9 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Excelia Group is a well-established French higher education institution founded in 1988, offering a broad portfolio of programs across business, tourism, communication, real estate, health, and languages. It holds prestigious triple accreditation (EQUIS, AACSB, AMBA) and is recognized in global rankings, positioning it as a reputable player in the education sector. The website reflects a professional and content-rich digital presence, targeting students, parents, professors, and corporate partners with comprehensive program details and support services. Technically, the site is built on Drupal CMS with modern JavaScript libraries and integrates marketing and analytics tools such as Matomo and Crisp chat. However, the site suffers from a critical security weakness due to the absence of a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS enforcement, which undermines user trust and data security. Privacy and cookie policies are present and GDPR compliant, with consent mechanisms implemented. Overall, the site demonstrates strong business credibility and user engagement but requires urgent security improvements to protect users and enhance trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 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

    • 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

  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
    • 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';…

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

Keep watching excelia-group.fr

This scan found 22 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

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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
90
Security headers
50
Email security
55
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
60

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

Excelia Group operates in the education sector with a medium-sized footprint in France, offering specialized schools and international programs. Its business model focuses on delivering accredited degree programs, executive education, and international student services. The group benefits from strong brand recognition, multiple accreditations, and a strategic partnership ecosystem including regional authorities and international organizations. The website's extensive content and multilingual support indicate a focus on both domestic and international markets. The presence of multiple dedicated domains for its schools and services suggests a decentralized but coordinated digital strategy. Growth indicators include active event promotion, news updates, and career support services. The group leverages marketing automation and analytics to optimize outreach and engagement.

Security posture

The current security posture of the Excelia Group website is weak due to the lack of a valid SSL certificate and absence of HTTPS, exposing users to potential data interception risks. While DNS records show DMARC implementation for email protection, other critical security headers are missing. No vulnerabilities such as subdomain takeover or known SSL exploits were detected, but the lack of TLS protocol support and HSTS reduces the site's resilience against attacks. The site uses several third-party scripts and marketing tools, which require regular auditing to prevent supply chain risks. Incident response and security policy documentation are not publicly found, indicating potential gaps in transparency and readiness. Overall, the security maturity is low, and immediate remediation is recommended to safeguard user data and comply with best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Obtain and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3) and disable deprecated versions to enhance encryption security.
  3. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload directives to enforce secure connections.
  4. Add essential security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-XSS-Protection to mitigate common web attacks.
  5. Publish a clear security policy and incident response plan accessible to users and partners to improve transparency and preparedness.

Contact details published on the site

Registration number
Chamber of Commerce
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 9.3.22 CMS, utilizing a modern JavaScript stack including jQuery 3.6.0, Modernizr, LazySizes for lazy loading images, Colorbox for modals, and Slick Carousel for sliders. Hosting and DNS are managed via Cloudflare, providing CDN and DNS protection. Despite the modern tech stack, the site suffers from slow load times (over 18 seconds) and a large page size (~1.2MB), indicating potential optimization opportunities. Accessibility features are implemented, including ARIA roles and an accessibility widget. SEO is supported with proper meta tags and Open Graph data. The site integrates marketing automation and analytics tools such as Matomo and Crisp chat, reflecting a mature digital marketing approach. Technical debt is moderate due to missing SSL and security headers, which pose operational risks. Modernization efforts should focus on performance optimization and security hardening.
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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