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Security report for fau.eu

FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg is a large, well-established public research university in Germany, founded in 1743. It offers over 280 degree programs and maintains a strong research profile with international collaborations. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content targeting students, researchers, staff, alumni, and corporate partners. Technically, the site is built on WordPress with modern plugins and frameworks, providing good performance, mobile optimization, and accessibility. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and cookie consent mechanisms, though some security headers could be improved. Privacy compliance is robust, with clear policies and GDPR-aligned consent. Overall, the domain and website present a trustworthy and professional institution with no evident security or content risks.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
73/ 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. 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';…
  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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. DNS health

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

    • High

      Weak SPF Policy

      SPF record has permissive policy allowing any server to send email

      What to do: Use -all or ~all qualifier for better email security

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

Keep watching fau.eu

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

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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
90
Security headers
25
Email security
55
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
73
Average
68

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 fau.eu, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
1,745
Employees
0
Customers
1,744
Third parties
1
Weak passwords
7%

5 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for fau.eu.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

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 one of Germany's leading universities, ranked in the top 10% globally by THE World University Rankings 2025. Its business model centers on education, research, and innovation support, including start-ups and industry partnerships. The university targets a broad audience including prospective and current students, researchers, staff, alumni, and companies. The website supports this ecosystem with portals and services tailored to each group. The presence of multiple social media channels and video content enhances engagement and brand visibility. The lack of direct revenue streams on the site is consistent with its public university status.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security posture with enforced HTTPS, session management cookies, and a comprehensive cookie consent mechanism. However, explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options are not evident and should be implemented to enhance protection against common web attacks. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The use of third-party analytics (Siteimprove) is transparent and consent-based. Incident response and security policy information are not publicly disclosed, which is common for academic institutions but could be improved for transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen web security.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Regularly audit and update third-party plugins and scripts to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance accessibility features further to maintain compliance with evolving standards.
  5. Consider publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
Description
FAU is one of the largest research universities in Germany. Its five faculties cover the entire spectrum of modern academic disciplines.
Key services
Degree programs, Research collaborations, Innovation and start-ups support, Career services, Alumni relations
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, PHP, RRZE plugins, Media Player, Slick Slider
Frameworks
The SEO Framework
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of session cookies (PHPSESSID, SimpleSAMLSessionID)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Siteimprove Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Siteimprove Analytics
Marketing tools
Siteimprove Analytics
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional university site with comprehensive information for students, researchers, and staff.
  2. Strong presence of privacy and cookie consent mechanisms indicating GDPR compliance.
  3. Use of modern web technologies and structured data for SEO.
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  5. WHOIS data unavailable but no negative indicators from website content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by WordPress CMS with a suite of RRZE plugins tailored for university needs, including glossary, FAQ, and video management. The front-end uses jQuery and Slick Slider for interactive elements. Structured data via JSON-LD is implemented for SEO and rich snippets. The site loads multiple external resources including video content from a university CDN and analytics from Siteimprove. Performance is moderate with room for optimization. Mobile responsiveness and accessibility are well addressed. No signs of outdated or vulnerable libraries were found in the HTML source.
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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