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Security report for famsanet.org

Federation of African Medical Students' Associations · Healthcare · Nigeria

High risk. 10 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, Network security and 2 other checks.

Security score

33/100

Risk levelHigh

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

The Federation of African Medical Students' Associations (FAMSA) is a well-established non-profit organization dedicated to uniting medical students across Africa. Founded in 1968, it serves as a continental federation fostering cooperation, education, and advocacy among African medical students. The website provides comprehensive information about the organization's structure, events, publications, and resources, targeting medical students and healthcare professionals in Africa. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with common libraries like jQuery and Owl Carousel, offering a moderate performance and good mobile optimization. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enabled and domain transfer protections, but lacks advanced security headers and DNSSEC. Privacy compliance is weak due to absence of privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the site is professional, content-rich, and trustworthy but would benefit from enhanced security and privacy measures.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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

10 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. 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: PostgreSQL

      Port 5432 (PostgreSQL) is publicly accessible - PostgreSQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to PostgreSQL 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';…

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

Keep watching famsanet.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

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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
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
35
Average
33

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

FAMSA holds a strong market position as the leading federation representing African medical students, offering key services such as networking, conferences, publications, and access to educational resources. Its partnerships with platforms like Lecturio, BlueCloud, and PG Med enhance its value proposition. The organization targets a niche audience of medical students and young healthcare professionals across Africa, with a medium-sized operational scale. The website content and structure reflect a mature organization with consistent branding and active engagement. However, the lack of formal privacy and security policies may pose compliance risks. The federation's longevity and domain age support its credibility, and its partnerships indicate a robust ecosystem for growth and influence.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS and has domain transfer protections, which are positive security indicators. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security reduces its defense against certain attacks. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response policies are publicly available, which limits transparency and readiness. The site uses standard WordPress components, which require regular updates to mitigate risks. No exposed sensitive data or known vulnerabilities were detected in the content. Overall, the security posture is moderate but could be significantly improved by implementing recommended best practices and policies.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie consent mechanism to improve GDPR and privacy compliance.
  2. Enable DNSSEC for the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  3. Add essential security headers (Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, Strict-Transport-Security) to protect against common web attacks.
  4. Establish and disclose a vulnerability disclosure policy and incident response contact to improve transparency and security readiness.
  5. Regularly audit and update WordPress core, themes, and plugins to minimize vulnerabilities and maintain security posture.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Federation of African Medical Students' Associations
Description
FAMSA is an independent, non-political federation of medical students associations in Africa, founded in 1968 to foster friendship and cooperation among African medical students. It is a project-oriented medical students body.
Key services
Networking and collaboration among African medical students, Organizing conferences and scientific assemblies, Publishing newsletters and journals (e.g., Journal of African Medical Students), Providing access to free medical coaching resources, Advocacy and leadership development
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Owl Carousel, FontAwesome
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
65/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a WordPress-based site with a professional design tailored for African medical students.
  2. Content is rich with news, events, organizational structure, and resources.
  3. No privacy or cookie policies found, which is a compliance gap.
  4. No visible security headers or advanced security policies implemented.
  5. Social media presence is active with official Telegram, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook links.
  6. WHOIS data shows a stable domain with no privacy protection but lacks registrant organization details.
  7. No signs of malicious or suspicious content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS, utilizing jQuery, Owl Carousel, and FontAwesome for UI components and interactivity. The hosting is managed via a registrar PDR Ltd. with DNS servers at whogohost.com. The site loads with moderate performance and is mobile optimized with responsive design elements. SEO is basic with standard meta tags but lacks advanced structured data like JSON-LD or Open Graph tags. Accessibility features are minimal but present. The site does not use advanced analytics or tracking services, indicating minimal user tracking. The technical stack is standard for non-profit organizations but could benefit from modernization and enhanced SEO and accessibility practices.
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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