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Security report for fau.de

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and Security headers.

Security score

58/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) is a large, well-established public research university in Germany, founded in 1743. It offers a broad spectrum of over 280 study programs and is recognized as one of the leading research institutions in the country. The university serves a diverse audience including prospective students, current students, researchers, staff, alumni, companies, schools, and the press. Its business model centers on education, research, and outreach, with strong partnerships and international collaborations. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content, structured navigation, and integration of multimedia and social media channels.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
18/ 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

6 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 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 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 fau.de

This scan found 21 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
82
Security headers
15
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
18
Average
58

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

FAU holds a strong market position as a top-tier German university with extensive research collaborations including Max Planck, Fraunhofer, and Helmholtz institutes. Its ecosystem supports innovation, career development, and community engagement. The university leverages digital platforms for education and outreach, including specialized portals and an innovation incubator. The presence of multiple language options and international programs indicates a global orientation. The university's brand is consistent and professional, supported by trust signals such as official certifications and privacy compliance.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with a valid 4096-bit SSL certificate issued by HARICA OV TLS RSA, ensuring encrypted communications. However, it lacks advanced security headers such as HSTS, DNSSEC, and CAA records, which could enhance protection against certain attacks. No vulnerable cipher suites or subdomain takeover risks were detected. The cookie consent mechanism is robust, supporting GDPR compliance. Overall, the security posture is solid but could be improved by implementing additional security best practices and DNS protections.

Recommendations

  1. Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) with includeSubDomains and preload to enforce HTTPS usage.
  2. Implement DNSSEC to protect DNS integrity and prevent spoofing.
  3. Add CAA DNS records to restrict which certificate authorities can issue certificates for the domain.
  4. Deploy security-related HTTP headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  5. Optimize SSL/TLS configuration to support only modern protocols and strong cipher suites.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress with a variety of custom and third-party plugins, including RRZE plugins tailored for university use. It uses modern JavaScript libraries such as React and jQuery. Structured data via JSON-LD and Open Graph tags are well implemented for SEO. The site includes multimedia content with a custom media player and integrates analytics via Siteimprove. Performance is moderate to slow, with a high page size and load time, likely due to extensive media and scripts. Mobile optimization and accessibility are good, supporting a wide user base. Hosting appears to be managed by university or academic network providers.
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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