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Security report for exzellenz-start-up-center.nrw

Campus Start-ups.NRW · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

62/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Campus Start-ups.NRW is a government-backed platform dedicated to fostering the academic start-up ecosystem in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It provides comprehensive resources, support program information, and showcases success stories from universities and applied sciences institutions. The website is professionally designed, well-structured, and optimized for accessibility and mobile use. Technically, it employs modern JavaScript libraries such as jQuery, Swiper, and AOS for interactive and responsive user experience. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent mechanisms in place, although some security headers could be improved. Privacy compliance is robust, with a clear privacy policy and cookie management. The absence of WHOIS registrant data is due to privacy protection, which is justified for this type of public initiative. Overall, the website is trustworthy, authoritative, and serves its target audience effectively.

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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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 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';…

  3. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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

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

Keep watching exzellenz-start-up-center.nrw

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
57
Security headers
30
Email security
60
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
65
Average
62

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention exzellenz-start-up-center.nrw, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for exzellenz-start-up-center.nrw right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The platform occupies a leading position in the regional academic start-up support sector, collaborating with universities, government bodies, and EU partners. Its business model is non-profit, focusing on ecosystem development rather than commercial revenue. The target audience includes academic founders, researchers, and start-up stakeholders in NRW. The site offers key services such as information dissemination, networking facilitation, and showcasing best practices. The presence of official logos and government references enhances credibility. The platform's growth is supported by regional funding programs and partnerships with educational institutions.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enabled and no visible exposure of sensitive data. It uses Matomo analytics, which is privacy-friendly compared to commercial trackers. Cookie consent is implemented, aligning with GDPR requirements. However, the site lacks explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and does not provide a public security policy or incident response contacts. No vulnerability disclosures or security.txt files were found. The absence of direct contact emails reduces phishing risk but may limit incident reporting channels. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced with additional headers and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen browser security.
  2. Publish a security policy page including incident response procedures and contact information for security issues.
  3. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance transparency by providing a vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file.
  5. Maintain and monitor cookie consent mechanisms to ensure ongoing GDPR compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Campus Start-ups.NRW
Description
Campus Start-ups.NRW is a web platform supporting academic start-up ecosystems in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It promotes start-up culture at universities and applied sciences institutions, offering information on support programs, start-up centers, and success stories.
Key services
Information on start-up support programs, Networking and ecosystem building, Showcasing start-up success stories, Providing resources and publications
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.7.1, Swiper.js, AOS (Animate On Scroll), SimpleBar, LightGallery, Bootstrap Bundle, Hyphenopoly
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
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 in German language.
  2. No signs of WAF or blocking detected.
  3. WHOIS data is privacy protected or unavailable, common for government or public sector domains.
  4. Strong focus on academic start-up ecosystem in NRW, Germany.
  5. Good privacy and cookie policy implementation with consent mechanism.
  6. No exposed emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  7. No social media links explicitly found in the provided HTML snippet.
  8. Use of Matomo analytics indicates privacy-conscious tracking.
  9. No security.txt or explicit vulnerability disclosure found.
  10. No direct contact emails or phone numbers visible; contact likely via web form.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern front-end stack with jQuery 3.7.1, Swiper for sliders, AOS for animations, and LightGallery for media display. It loads resources over HTTPS and includes responsive design elements for mobile optimization. The CMS is not explicitly identified but appears custom or proprietary. Performance is moderate, with some large images and multiple scripts that could be optimized. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels are present, indicating good compliance. SEO is supported by meta tags and structured navigation. Hosting provider details are not discernible from the content. Overall, the technical implementation is solid with room for performance tuning.
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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