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Security report for fhv.at

FHV - Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences · Education · Austria

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, SSL/TLS and 1 other check.

Security score

52/100

Risk levelMedium

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

FHV - Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences is a medium-sized educational institution based in Austria, offering a wide range of Bachelor and Master programs across technical, economic, design, and social-health disciplines. The institution emphasizes applied research and international cooperation, positioning itself as a leading university of applied sciences in the Bodenseeraum region. The website is professionally designed, content-rich, and well-structured, targeting prospective students, researchers, and academic partners. Technically, the site uses modern CMS Pimcore and Vue.js frontend framework, with Google Tag Manager for analytics and Cookiebot for consent management. However, a critical security gap exists as the site lacks a valid SSL certificate and HTTPS support, despite having security headers and HSTS configured. This exposes users to potential risks and undermines trust. Contact information is clearly provided, and privacy policies comply with GDPR standards. Overall, the site demonstrates strong business credibility and digital maturity but requires urgent remediation of its SSL/TLS configuration to improve security posture and user trust.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
0/ 100 · Critical
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

6 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

    • Critical

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • 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

  2. 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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

  3. 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"

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

Keep watching fhv.at

This scan found 14 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
0
Security headers
70
Email security
50
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
0
Average
52

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

The FHV operates in the education sector, focusing on applied sciences and research with a strong regional and international presence. Its business model revolves around delivering academic programs and research services, supported by partnerships and community engagement. The institution leverages digital platforms for student engagement, application processing, and information dissemination. The presence of multiple social media channels and a whistleblower system indicates a mature organizational culture. The domain registration and DNS setup align with the institution's identity, reinforcing legitimacy. Growth potential is supported by diverse study programs and international collaborations.

Security posture

The website exhibits a moderate security posture with several best practices implemented, including security headers like CSP, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-XSS-Protection. However, the absence of a valid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols represent critical vulnerabilities that severely impact the security score. The malformed CAA DNS records and lack of OCSP stapling further weaken the security stance. No public incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies were found, indicating potential gaps in security governance. Immediate action is required to deploy HTTPS and update DNS security configurations to protect user data and maintain compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Acquire and deploy a valid SSL/TLS certificate to enable HTTPS across the entire site.
  2. Enable modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3) and disable legacy insecure protocols.
  3. Correct and validate CAA DNS records to ensure proper certificate authority authorization.
  4. Implement OCSP stapling and session resumption to improve security and performance.
  5. Enhance HSTS policy to include preload and subdomains for stronger transport security.
  6. Publish a security policy and vulnerability disclosure framework to improve transparency and incident response readiness.
  7. Regularly audit and update security headers and CSP to adapt to evolving threats.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Technical notes

Notes

The site is powered by Pimcore CMS and uses Vue.js for frontend interactivity, indicating a modern and flexible technology stack. Google Tag Manager is used for analytics, and Cookiebot manages cookie consent, supporting privacy compliance. The site is well-structured with clear navigation and multilingual support. Performance appears slow, possibly due to missing performance metrics and caching strategies. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels are present, enhancing usability. SEO is supported by meta tags, canonical links, and structured data (JSON-LD). However, the lack of HTTPS is a major technical risk. DNS records show multiple A and AAAA addresses, with Microsoft Outlook used for mail exchange, indicating professional email infrastructure. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but requires urgent security upgrades.
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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