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Security report for fcc.gov

Federal Communications Commission · Government · United States

Partial score · DNS & email only

62/100

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

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a United States government agency responsible for regulating interstate and international communications. The website serves as the official digital presence of the FCC, providing comprehensive information on regulatory proceedings, licensing, consumer resources, and public safety. It targets a broad audience including consumers, industry stakeholders, and government entities. The FCC maintains a strong market position as the primary federal communications regulator in the US, offering key services such as licensing databases, spectrum auctions, and consumer complaint handling. Technically, the website is built on Drupal 10, leveraging modern web technologies including Google Tag Manager and FontAwesome. Accessibility is enhanced through AudioEye tools, and the site is mobile-optimized with good SEO practices. The performance is moderate with a well-structured and professional design. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, employs secure forms, and publishes a vulnerability disclosure policy. While explicit security headers are not fully confirmed, the overall security posture is strong with no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Privacy compliance is good, with a comprehensive privacy policy and clear contact information, though a cookie consent mechanism is not detected. Overall, the FCC website is a highly credible, professional, and secure government resource. It demonstrates strong trust indicators and meets the expectations for a federal agency's digital presence. Minor improvements could include enhanced security header implementation and cookie consent compliance to further strengthen privacy and security assurances.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
6of 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. 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. 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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

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

Keep watching fcc.gov

This scan found 14 issues across 5 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
Email security
75
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
62

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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

The FCC operates as a critical government regulatory body in the telecommunications sector, overseeing licensing, enforcement, and consumer protection. Its business model is non-commercial, focused on public service and regulatory compliance. The website reflects this with extensive informational content, official documentation, and public engagement tools. The FCC's market position is unique and authoritative within the US communications landscape. The agency maintains a robust partnership ecosystem through various bureaus and offices, and its digital presence supports transparency and accessibility. Growth indicators include active proceedings, public comment systems, and ongoing events. The FCC's operations are supported by a large organizational structure and a well-maintained digital infrastructure.

Security posture

The FCC website exhibits a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, secure form handling, and a published vulnerability disclosure policy. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The use of third-party scripts like Google Tag Manager and AudioEye is managed appropriately, though continuous monitoring is recommended. Security headers are partially inferred but should be explicitly confirmed and enhanced. Incident response contact details are not prominently displayed, suggesting an area for improvement. Overall, the site aligns well with federal security standards and best practices, supporting trust and resilience against common web threats.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and explicitly publish security headers such as X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against clickjacking and MIME sniffing.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and improve user transparency regarding tracking.
  3. Publish a security.txt file at the root domain to facilitate security researcher communication and improve incident response readiness.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities and ensure compliance with security policies.
  5. Enhance visibility of incident response contacts or security team information to improve trust and facilitate timely reporting of security issues.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Registration number
Registration Number Auctions
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Federal Communications Commission
Description
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a United States government agency responsible for regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable.
Key services
Licensing & Databases, Proceedings & Actions, Reports & Research, Consumer Complaint Handling, Spectrum Auctions, Public Safety Support
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Google Tag Manager, FontAwesome, AudioEye Accessibility Tools
Frameworks
Drupal CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with validation
  • Vulnerability disclosure policy published

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is an official US government site with .gov TLD
  2. Content is comprehensive, well-structured, and professionally presented
  3. Multiple official contact methods including phone, address, and contact forms
  4. Strong accessibility features implemented via AudioEye
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. No cookie consent banner detected, which may be a minor compliance gap
  7. WHOIS data is not publicly available, consistent with .gov domain policies
  8. Social media presence on official platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram)
  9. Use of modern web technologies and CMS (Drupal 10)
  10. Security posture is strong with HTTPS and vulnerability disclosure policy
Technical notes

Notes

The FCC website is built on Drupal 10, a modern and widely supported CMS platform, ensuring a solid foundation for content management and security. The site uses Google Tag Manager for analytics and tracking, FontAwesome for icons, and AudioEye for accessibility compliance. The HTML structure is valid and includes meta tags for SEO and social media sharing (Open Graph). Performance is moderate, with asynchronous loading of scripts and responsive design for mobile devices. Accessibility features are robust, supported by AudioEye integration. The site lacks explicit cookie consent mechanisms and some security headers, which are areas for technical improvement. Hosting details are not explicitly identified but the site uses HTTPS with a valid certificate, indicating a secure hosting environment.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 63/100Medium19 findings · partial scanView report
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