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Security report for fda.gov

U.S. Food and Drug Administration · Government · United States

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

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a federal government agency responsible for protecting public health by regulating food safety, drugs, medical devices, and other related products. The website serves as an authoritative source for regulatory information, safety alerts, guidance documents, and consumer education. It targets a broad audience including consumers, patients, industry stakeholders, health professionals, and government officials. The FDA holds a dominant market position as the primary regulatory authority in the United States for its sectors. Technically, the website is built on the Drupal CMS platform and employs modern analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Crazy Egg for user behavior tracking and performance insights. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and well-structured with comprehensive metadata and SEO practices. The use of HTTPS and privacy-conscious analytics configurations indicate a mature digital infrastructure. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and avoids exposing sensitive data. However, explicit security headers are not evident in the HTML content, and there is no visible security.txt file for vulnerability disclosure. The site links to a vulnerability disclosure policy hosted by the parent agency (HHS), indicating a formal security posture. No critical vulnerabilities or suspicious content were detected. Overall, the FDA website demonstrates a high level of professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance with privacy and security best practices. The incomplete WHOIS data is typical for U.S. government domains and does not detract from the site's legitimacy. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, implementing a security.txt file, and improving cookie consent mechanisms to further strengthen privacy compliance.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of fda.gov. View the latest report

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. 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 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 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 SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching fda.gov

This scan found 19 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
80
Security headers
55
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
73

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 fda.gov, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
8,594
Employees
0
Customers
8,550
Third parties
44
Weak passwords
7%

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 fda.gov.

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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

The FDA operates as a government regulatory agency with a clear mandate to ensure public health and safety. Its business model is non-commercial, focused on regulation, oversight, and information dissemination. The agency's competitive advantage lies in its authoritative status and legal mandate. Revenue streams are government-funded. The target customer segments include consumers, healthcare professionals, industry participants, and government officials. The FDA maintains a broad partnership ecosystem with other government entities such as HHS and USA.gov. The website reflects a mature digital presence with strong branding and comprehensive content supporting its mission. Strategically, the FDA's online presence supports transparency, public engagement, and regulatory compliance. The site’s integration with social media and modern analytics tools indicates an emphasis on outreach and data-driven decision-making. The agency’s operations and market presence are stable and authoritative, with no evident commercial conflicts or vulnerabilities.

Security posture

The FDA website exhibits a solid security posture with mandatory HTTPS encryption and privacy-conscious analytics configurations. The absence of explicit security headers in the HTML is a minor gap that could be addressed to enhance protection against common web attacks. The site does not expose sensitive information or vulnerable libraries. The linkage to a formal vulnerability disclosure policy hosted by HHS demonstrates incident response readiness and security culture awareness. No signs of malware, phishing, or other security threats were found. Compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations is implied through privacy policies and cookie practices, though cookie consent mechanisms could be improved. Overall, the security maturity level is high for a government website, with room for incremental improvements in headers and transparency. The risk to business operations from security vulnerabilities is low, supporting the agency’s mission-critical functions.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Publish and maintain a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure and improve transparency.
  3. Enhance cookie consent mechanisms to explicitly obtain user consent and improve GDPR compliance.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure no vulnerable or privacy-invasive libraries are used.
  5. Continue to maintain clear and accessible contact channels for security incidents and privacy inquiries to strengthen trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Description
The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; and by ensuring the safety of our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation.
Key services
Regulation and oversight of food safety, Drug approval and monitoring, Medical device regulation, Safety alerts and recalls, Guidance documents publication, Consumer education
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics (gtag.js), Crazy Egg, Drupal CMS, Universal Federated Analytics
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Secure cookie usage implied
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google Tag Manager with privacy settings (no ad personalization)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Universal Federated Analytics, Crazy Egg
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Crazy Egg
Tracking pixels
Universal Federated Analytics
Marketing tools
Crazy Egg
Transparency
basic

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 TLD
  2. Comprehensive public health and regulatory content
  3. Strong branding and consistent design
  4. Multiple official social media channels linked
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content
  6. Use of modern analytics and tracking tools with privacy considerations
  7. No visible security headers in HTML but HTTPS enforced
  8. WHOIS data incomplete but expected for government domain
Technical notes

Notes

The FDA website is built on Drupal CMS, leveraging modern JavaScript libraries and analytics tools including Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Crazy Egg, and Universal Federated Analytics. The site uses asynchronous loading for scripts to optimize performance. The HTML is well-structured with comprehensive meta tags for SEO and social media integration (Open Graph, Twitter cards). Mobile optimization and accessibility features are excellent, including skip links and ARIA attributes. Performance is moderate, likely due to the inclusion of multiple third-party scripts, but overall user experience is smooth. The site lacks explicit security headers in the HTML response, which is a technical debt area. Hosting provider details are not explicitly found but likely government infrastructure. The site uses HTTPS exclusively, ensuring secure data transmission. There are no visible technical errors or broken elements in the content.
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. 73/100Medium25 findingsView report
  2. 73/100 +25Medium25 findingsView report
  3. 48/100High23 findingsView report
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