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Security report for fhnw.ch

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW · Education · Switzerland

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (FHNW) is a prominent Swiss educational institution offering a broad spectrum of academic programs, research initiatives, continuing education, and services. The website reflects a well-established entity with a strong market position in higher education, emphasizing practical relevance, innovation, and international collaboration. The digital infrastructure is modern, leveraging React and Plone CMS, ensuring a responsive and accessible user experience. Security measures such as HTTPS, cookie consent via Cookiebot, and CAPTCHA integration demonstrate a mature security posture, although some enhancements like explicit security headers and incident response disclosures could further strengthen their stance. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and compliant with GDPR, supporting the institution's credibility and operational effectiveness.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of fhnw.ch. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 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

7 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 Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching fhnw.ch

This scan found 21 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
52
Security headers
40
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
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

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

FHNW operates in the education sector with a focus on applied sciences and arts, targeting students, researchers, and professionals seeking advanced studies and training. Its business model centers on delivering academic programs, research collaborations, and continuing education services. The institution maintains a strong brand presence with consistent messaging and quality content. Partnerships and subsidiary domains like emagazin.fhnw.ch support its outreach and engagement. The website's comprehensive content and clear navigation facilitate user engagement and reflect a large organizational size with significant market influence in Switzerland.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with good SSL configuration and security headers like X-Frame-Options. Cookie consent management and hCaptcha integration indicate attention to privacy and bot mitigation. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. However, the absence of a published security policy or incident response contact limits transparency. The security score is strong but could be improved by adding a security.txt file, explicit Content-Security-Policy headers, and clear incident response procedures to enhance trust and readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a formal security policy and incident response plan accessible on the website.
  2. Add a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure and improve transparency.
  3. Enhance HTTP security headers by adding Content-Security-Policy and other relevant headers.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Maintain and update cookie consent mechanisms to ensure ongoing GDPR compliance and user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
Description
Die Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz ist mit ihren zehn Fachbereichen in der Lehre, Forschung, Weiterbildung und Dienstleistung tätig. Ihr breites Angebot an Studiengängen, ihre Nähe zur Praxis, ihre innovationsstarke Forschung sowie ihre weltweite Vernetzung machen die FHNW zu einer attraktiven und vielfältigen Bildungsstätte und nachgefragten Praxispartnerin.
Key services
Studiengänge (Bachelor, Master, Weiterbildung), Forschung, Dienstleistungen, Praxispartnerschaften
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Plone CMS, Python, JavaScript, CSS
Frameworks
React, Plone
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with Cookiebot
  • No exposed sensitive data detected
  • Use of CAPTCHA (hCaptcha) for forms

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
Cookiebot
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible and not blocked by WAF or security challenges
  2. Content is comprehensive and professionally presented
  3. Strong focus on education, research, and continuing education
  4. Use of modern web technologies and CMS
  5. Good privacy and cookie compliance with Cookiebot
  6. No suspicious or malicious elements detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technology stack including React and Plone CMS powered by Python. It uses asynchronous JavaScript loading, preloading of CSS, and optimized image handling for performance. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with multilingual support (German, English, French). While performance is moderate, improvements could be made by optimizing resource loading and caching strategies. The use of Cookiebot and Google Tag Manager indicates integration of marketing and analytics tools with privacy considerations. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a robust and user-friendly digital presence.
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. 68/100Medium27 findingsView report
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