Skip to main content

Security report for fh-bielefeld.de

Hochschule Bielefeld · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Hochschule Bielefeld (HSBI) is a German university of applied sciences providing education, research, and transfer services primarily to students, academic staff, and regional partners. The website offers comprehensive information about study programs, research projects, transfer activities, continuing education, and international services. The institution holds a solid regional market position as a medium-sized educational entity in Germany. Technically, the website is built on a custom CMS with jQuery and standard web technologies, featuring good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Security posture is strong with HTTPS and multiple security headers, though some improvements are recommended in privacy compliance and incident response transparency. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-structured, serving its target audience effectively.

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

5 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

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  2. 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"

  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 Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching fh-bielefeld.de

This scan found 25 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
72
Security headers
65
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
67

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 fh-bielefeld.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
1,339
Employees
70
Customers
949
Third parties
320
Weak passwords
18%

Latest record dated 2026-05-26 · 66 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 fh-bielefeld.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –mail.fh-bielefeld.de2026-05-26
  • –mail.fh-bielefeld.de2026-05-25
  • –mail.fh-bielefeld.de2026-05-21
  • –mail.fh-bielefeld.de2026-05-20
  • –owa.fh-bielefeld.de2026-05-15

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

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

HSBI operates as a public educational institution focusing on applied sciences and arts. Its business model centers on providing higher education, research collaborations, and technology transfer within the regional ecosystem of Bielefeld and surrounding areas. The website reflects a stable and consistent brand with clear navigation and relevant content for students, staff, and partners. Partnerships with regional organizations and research networks are evident. The institution targets students, alumni, companies, and the press, indicating a broad stakeholder engagement. No commercial advertising or affiliate programs are present, consistent with its public education mandate.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, presence of key security headers (HSTS, CSP, X-Frame-Options, etc.), and no visible exposure of sensitive data. However, there is no publicly available security policy or incident response contact information, which could be improved to enhance transparency and readiness. No vulnerable libraries or insecure forms were detected in the provided content. GDPR compliance is indicated via a privacy policy, but cookie consent mechanisms are lacking. Overall, the security posture is good but could benefit from formalized policies and user-facing security information.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a visible and comprehensive cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and enhance user trust.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page with clear contact channels for reporting security issues.
  3. Add a terms of service page to clarify user rights and obligations.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance with WCAG standards and user experience for all visitors.
  5. Consider establishing a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Hochschule Bielefeld
Description
Informationen zu Studium, Lehre, Forschung und Entwicklung an der Hochschule Bielefeld
Key services
Study programs, Research projects, Transfer and cooperation, Continuing education, International services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, CSS, JavaScript
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Security headers present
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

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 well-structured university site with comprehensive navigation and content.
  2. No signs of blocking or WAF interference.
  3. No visible security or privacy policy pages except for a privacy statement related to the International Office.
  4. No cookie consent mechanism detected.
  5. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers clearly labeled in the main content; some contact forms and phone numbers are referenced in subpages.
  6. No social media links explicitly found in the provided HTML snippet.
  7. Use of HTTPS and security headers is confirmed.
  8. Content is primarily in German with some English options.
  9. No advertising or tracking scripts detected in the provided content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a custom CMS with jQuery and standard CSS/JS assets. It is mobile responsive and optimized for various screen sizes. Performance is moderate with image sliders and multiple media assets. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and structured navigation. No modern JavaScript frameworks or advanced backend technologies were detected. Hosting appears to be academic or institutional with DNS servers linked to FH Bielefeld and DFN. There is room for modernization in technology stack and performance optimization, but current implementation is stable and functional.
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 fh-bielefeld.de. 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 fh-bielefeld.de.

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.