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Security report for fediscience.org

FediScience e.V. · Technology · Germany

Medium risk. 2 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

FediScience.org is a specialized social networking platform for scientists and researchers, operated by the registered non-profit association FediScience e.V. in Germany. The platform leverages the Mastodon open-source software to provide a decentralized and community-driven environment focused on scientific communication. The target audience includes PhD students, professors, and researchers both within and outside academia. The business model is community-supported with voluntary donations via Liberapay and Patreon, reflecting a non-commercial, mission-driven approach. The platform holds a niche position within the fediverse, emphasizing inclusivity and scientific discourse.

Scanned

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

2 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.

    • 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

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

Keep watching fediscience.org

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
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  • 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
95
Security headers
75
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
53
Average
69

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 fediscience.org, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
13
Employees
0
Customers
13
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
0%

1 subdomain 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 fediscience.org.

Select it in the checkout above.

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

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Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The organization maintains a clear market position as a dedicated social network for the scientific community, differentiating itself through its focus on publishing scientists and active researchers. Its competitive advantage lies in its community moderation, transparent governance, and alignment with open-source principles. Revenue streams are primarily donation-based, supporting infrastructure and moderation costs. The partnership ecosystem includes open-source Mastodon and donation platforms like Liberapay and Patreon. Growth indicators include an active user base of approximately 915 monthly active users and ongoing community engagement. Strategic observations suggest opportunities to enhance compliance and security posture to strengthen trust and scalability.

Security posture

The security maturity of fediscience.org is moderate. The site uses HTTPS and has domain transfer protections in place, but lacks DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security. There is no visible security policy or incident response contact information, which could hinder timely vulnerability reporting and mitigation. The absence of a cookie consent mechanism indicates partial GDPR compliance gaps. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. Overall, the platform demonstrates basic security hygiene but would benefit from enhanced security controls and formalized policies to improve resilience and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve domain integrity.
  2. Implement standard security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options) to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  3. Publish a security policy and incident response contact details to facilitate vulnerability reporting and improve transparency.
  4. Add a cookie consent mechanism to comply with GDPR and enhance user privacy controls.
  5. Regularly audit and update the technology stack to ensure no vulnerable dependencies are present.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
FediScience e.V.
Registration number
VR 240410
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
FediScience e.V.
Description
fediscience.org is a social network for scientists run by FediScience e.V., an international association dedicated to promoting scientific communication.
Key services
Decentralized social networking for scientists, Community moderation and support, Publishing and discussion platform for scientific topics
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Mastodon 4.3.4, JavaScript, CSS, HTML5, Liberapay (donation platform), Patreon (donation platform)
Frameworks
Mastodon
Platforms
Fediverse, Mastodon
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled (implied by wss:// and https:// URLs)
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a Mastodon instance dedicated to scientists and researchers.
  2. Operated by a registered non-profit association in Germany.
  3. Clear contact and imprint information provided.
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  5. No cookie consent mechanism detected despite GDPR relevance.
  6. No explicit security policy or incident response contacts found.
  7. No terms of service page detected.
  8. Use of open-source Mastodon platform with version 4.3.4.
  9. Donation options via Liberapay and Patreon are offered.
  10. No advertising or tracking scripts detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Mastodon platform version 4.3.4, utilizing modern web technologies including JavaScript and CSS. Hosting is provided by IONOS SE, a reputable registrar and hosting provider. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization and basic accessibility features. Performance is moderate, with proper meta tags and SEO optimizations in place. The absence of a traditional CMS indicates a custom deployment of Mastodon. Technical risks include lack of DNSSEC and missing security headers, which could be addressed to reduce attack surface. Overall, the infrastructure is adequate for the community size but could be modernized with enhanced security and privacy features.
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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