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Security report for farmers.gov

United States Department of Agriculture · Government · United States

High risk. 4 critical or high findings in DNS health, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

49/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Farmers.gov is an official U.S. government website operated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) providing comprehensive resources, tools, and information to support farmers and agricultural producers across the United States. The site offers services including farm loan assistance, disaster recovery programs, conservation initiatives, and local service center locators, positioning itself as a critical digital platform for agricultural stakeholders. The website is well-branded with consistent USDA imagery and messaging, targeting a broad audience of farmers, ranchers, and producers. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 CMS and integrates multiple analytics and tracking tools such as Google Analytics, Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, and Siteimprove, indicating a mature digital infrastructure focused on user experience and performance monitoring. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, although performance is moderate likely due to the complexity and volume of content. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS with a government-signed SSL certificate and likely employs standard security headers, though explicit header details are not fully confirmed. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. However, the absence of a visible cookie consent mechanism and vulnerability disclosure page suggests areas for compliance improvement. Overall, the site maintains a strong security posture appropriate for a government service portal. The domain is a .gov domain, restricted to U.S. government entities, which strongly supports legitimacy despite the lack of publicly available WHOIS data. The website’s content, branding, and external links further confirm its authenticity. The site is safe for general audiences with no adult or questionable content detected. Strategic recommendations include implementing explicit cookie consent, publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy, and enhancing transparency around security practices to further strengthen trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • Critical

      Domain Expired

      Domain expired 202 days ago

      What to do: Renew domain registration immediately

  2. 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

  3. 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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching farmers.gov

This scan found 20 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.

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Full report

€39.90one-time

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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
77
Security headers
75
Email security
85
DNS health
30
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
70
After the cap
49

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 · found on this site
  • 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

Farmers.gov operates as a government service portal under the USDA, serving as a centralized hub for agricultural resources and assistance programs. Its market positioning is strong as an authoritative source for farmers and producers, leveraging official government backing and a .gov domain. The business model focuses on providing free, accessible information and digital tools to support agricultural operations, disaster recovery, and conservation efforts. The site’s partnership ecosystem includes key USDA agencies such as the Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Risk Management Agency, enhancing its service breadth and depth. Growth indicators include continuous content updates, integration of new digital tools, and active engagement through social media channels. The platform’s strategic advantage lies in its official status, comprehensive service offerings, and user-centric digital experience.

Security posture

The security posture of Farmers.gov is robust, reflecting typical government standards. HTTPS is enforced with a government-signed SSL certificate ensuring encrypted data transmission. The site likely employs standard security headers, though explicit confirmation is limited. No exposed sensitive information or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. Secure login portals and integration with trusted third-party services like OneSpan and Box for document signing enhance security. However, the absence of a published vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file and lack of explicit incident response contact details represent minor gaps. The site does not display a cookie consent banner, which may impact privacy compliance. Overall, the site demonstrates a mature security culture appropriate for a federal government digital service.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and display a cookie consent banner to comply with privacy regulations and enhance user trust.
  2. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  3. Explicitly confirm and publish security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  4. Provide clear incident response contact information, including security or abuse email addresses.
  5. Regularly audit and monitor third-party scripts and analytics tools to mitigate potential security risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
United States Department of Agriculture
Description
Explore USDA programs and resources to help you start, grow, and protect your operation.
Key services
Farm loan assistance, Disaster assistance, Service center locator, Online account management, Program eligibility and deadlines, Conservation resources, Business planning for farmers
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, Siteimprove, OneSpan, Box
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Secure login portals
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of signed SSL certificate by U.S. government

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, Siteimprove
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, Siteimprove
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official U.S. government website with .gov domain
  2. Comprehensive agricultural resources for farmers and producers
  3. Modern Drupal 10 CMS with multiple analytics and tracking tools
  4. No WHOIS data available publicly, typical for government domains
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. No explicit cookie consent banner found, potential compliance gap
  7. Contact email for tech support provided in footer
  8. Social media presence on major platforms with official USDA accounts
Technical notes

Notes

Farmers.gov is built on Drupal 10 CMS, a modern and widely supported content management system suitable for complex government websites. The site integrates multiple analytics and user experience monitoring tools including Google Analytics, Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, and Siteimprove, indicating a focus on data-driven improvements. The presence of OneSpan and Box integrations suggests secure document handling capabilities. The site is mobile optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices evident from meta tags and structured data. Performance is moderate, likely due to the volume of content and scripts loaded. Hosting appears to be on government infrastructure, ensuring compliance with federal standards. Opportunities exist to optimize loading speed and enhance privacy compliance mechanisms.
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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