Skip to main content

Security report for fau.edu

Florida Atlantic University · Education · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

54/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Florida Atlantic University (FAU) is a large, public research university based in the United States, focused on providing comprehensive undergraduate and graduate education, research opportunities, and community engagement. The website reflects a well-established institution with a strong market position as a top-tier research university (R1 classification) and a commitment to student empowerment and diversity. The site targets students, faculty, alumni, and families, offering extensive academic programs, campus life information, and research highlights. Technically, the website employs a modern technology stack including jQuery, Bootstrap, Font Awesome, and other popular JavaScript libraries, hosted on a platform likely powered by OmniUpdate CMS. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, with good performance and professional design. However, it lacks visible cookie consent mechanisms despite extensive use of tracking and advertising scripts, which may pose privacy compliance risks. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and does not expose sensitive data or vulnerable libraries. However, it lacks explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure information. The presence of multiple third-party tracking and advertising services indicates extensive user tracking, which is not accompanied by transparent consent mechanisms. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and content-rich, but could improve privacy compliance and security transparency. Strategic recommendations include implementing cookie consent banners, publishing security and incident response policies, and enhancing security headers to strengthen the security posture and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 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

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

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • 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. 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

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  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 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.edu

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.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
30
Email security
80
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
54

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 position in the higher education sector as a public research university with R1 status, indicating high research activity. Its business model revolves around education services, research funding, and community engagement. The university targets a broad audience including prospective and current students, faculty, alumni, and families. Key services include degree programs, research initiatives, internship placements, and campus life activities. The university leverages partnerships and maintains a strong social media presence to enhance brand visibility. Growth indicators include recent news articles, events, and student success stories. The website's integration with multiple external domains for calendars, social media, and analytics reflects a mature digital ecosystem supporting its operations.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and no visible exposure of sensitive data or vulnerable libraries. However, the absence of security policy documentation, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms indicates gaps in security transparency and readiness. The extensive use of third-party tracking and advertising scripts without a visible cookie consent mechanism raises privacy compliance concerns, especially under GDPR. Security headers are not explicitly detected in the HTML content, suggesting potential improvements. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by formalizing policies, improving privacy compliance, and implementing additional security headers.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a visible cookie consent banner to comply with privacy regulations such as GDPR.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information on the website.
  3. Add and enforce security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  4. Develop and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  5. Enhance transparency around data collection and retention policies to build user trust.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Florida Atlantic University
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Florida Atlantic University
Description
Florida Atlantic University (FAU) is a student-centered public research university committed to empowering students who want to make a difference.
Key services
Undergraduate and graduate education, Research programs, Campus life and athletics, Internship placements, Combined Bachelor’s to Master’s degree programs
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.6.1, Bootstrap 4.3.1, Font Awesome 4.7.0, Weather Icons 2.1.0, Lity 2.4.0, Slick Carousel 1.9.0, Swiper 8
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by og:url and script sources using https)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager), Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
AppNexus (acdn.adnxs.com), The Trade Desk (adsrvr.org)
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag
Marketing tools
Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a fully functional, professionally designed university site
  2. Strong branding and consistent messaging
  3. Comprehensive content targeting students, faculty, alumni, and families
  4. Use of multiple modern JavaScript libraries and frameworks
  5. Extensive use of third-party analytics and advertising/tracking services
  6. No visible security or privacy policy pages beyond privacy policy
  7. No cookie consent banner detected despite tracking scripts
  8. No explicit terms of service or security policy pages found
  9. Contact information is present but no direct emails or phone numbers visible on homepage
  10. Social media presence is strong with official accounts linked
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern and robust technology stack including jQuery, Bootstrap, Font Awesome, and other JavaScript libraries for UI and interactivity. It is built on the OmniUpdate CMS platform, which is common for educational institutions. The site is mobile responsive and optimized for accessibility and SEO. Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts and use of CDNs for common libraries. The integration of multiple third-party analytics and advertising services introduces complexity and potential privacy risks. Technical debt appears low, but opportunities exist to improve security headers and privacy compliance mechanisms to reduce risk and enhance user trust.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with fau.edu. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review fau.edu.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.