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Security report for fhnw.ch

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (FHNW) · Education · Switzerland

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (FHNW) is a prominent Swiss higher education institution offering a broad spectrum of academic programs, research, continuing education, and services. The website reflects a well-established educational entity with a strong market position in the Swiss education sector, targeting students, researchers, and professional partners. The digital infrastructure is modern, leveraging Plone CMS and React, with good mobile optimization and accessibility. Privacy and cookie compliance are well implemented with region-specific consent mechanisms. Security posture is strong with HTTPS and security headers, though explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not publicly detailed. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and aligns well with the institution's reputation.

Scanned

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

8 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 20 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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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
42
Security headers
40
Email security
85
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
Average
68

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, serving a large audience including students and industry partners. Its business model centers on academic programs, research collaborations, and continuing education offerings. The institution maintains a consistent brand and provides comprehensive information about its services and locations. The website integrates marketing and analytics tools responsibly, indicating a mature digital presence. No suspicious or misleading elements were found, supporting a high credibility rating.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with strong SSL configuration and security headers such as X-Frame-Options. Cookie consent is managed via Cookiebot with granular controls for EU and non-EU users, demonstrating GDPR awareness. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of a public security policy or vulnerability disclosure page suggests room for improvement in transparency and incident readiness. Overall, the security posture is solid but could benefit from enhanced documentation and explicit incident response channels.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and compliance.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  3. Provide clear incident response contact information, including security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  4. Enhance Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate risks from third-party scripts.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
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), Forschung und Entwicklung, Weiterbildungskurse, Dienstleistungen für Praxispartner
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Plone CMS, Python, Cookiebot, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics
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 region-specific settings
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security headers

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics via Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
Cookiebot
Transparency
good

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.
  2. Content is comprehensive and professionally presented.
  3. Strong privacy and cookie compliance with region-specific consent.
  4. Use of modern web technologies and CMS (Plone 6).
  5. Clear contact and business information available.
  6. No security or privacy red flags detected.
  7. No adult or questionable content present.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Plone 6 CMS with React frontend, indicating a modern and scalable architecture. It uses Cookiebot for cookie consent management and Google Tag Manager for analytics integration. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and Open Graph data. Performance is moderate, likely due to rich media content and third-party scripts. Hosting details are not explicit but appear stable. Technical risks are minimal, though continuous monitoring of third-party components is advised to maintain security and performance.
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. 69/100Medium28 findingsView report
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