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Security report for finance.gov.au

Department of Finance · Government · Australia

Partial score · DNS & email only

58/100

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

The Department of Finance website serves as the official portal for the Australian Government's finance department, providing extensive resources on government financial management, procurement, grants, and governance policies. It targets government officials, businesses, and individuals interacting with government financial services, positioning itself as a primary authoritative source in the Australian public sector finance domain. The website is built on a modern Drupal 10 CMS with GovCMS framework, leveraging Bootstrap for responsive design and integrating analytics tools such as Matomo and Google Analytics with privacy-conscious configurations like IP anonymization. Security measures include HTTPS enforcement and multiple security headers, reflecting a mature security posture. However, explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not publicly detailed, suggesting an area for improvement. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-optimized for accessibility and SEO, with a high legitimacy score based on domain registration and content quality.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
6of 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

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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

      Unable to retrieve SSL certificate

      Could not establish secure connection to retrieve certificate information

      What to do: Check if the server is accessible and SSL/TLS is properly configured

  2. 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

  3. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      No Name Servers Found

      Unable to find name servers for domain

      What to do: Configure proper name servers for the domain

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

Keep watching finance.gov.au

This scan found 13 issues across 5 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

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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
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
58

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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 Department of Finance operates as an essential government entity within the Australian public sector, focusing on financial stewardship, procurement frameworks, and risk management. Its business model is service-oriented, providing regulatory guidance and operational support to other government agencies and stakeholders. The website's comprehensive documentation and policy resources indicate a strong commitment to transparency and governance. The absence of commercial activities and the presence of official government domain and branding reinforce its authoritative market position. The department's digital presence supports its strategic objectives by facilitating access to critical financial and governance information, enhancing operational efficiency across the government sector.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a robust security posture with enforced HTTPS, modern security headers, and privacy-conscious analytics configurations. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the analyzed content. However, the lack of publicly available security policies, incident response procedures, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms suggests potential gaps in transparency and readiness communication. The site would benefit from publishing explicit security documentation and providing direct security contact channels to enhance trust and incident management capabilities. Overall, the security maturity is high for a government website, with room for improvement in policy disclosure and community engagement on security matters.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page detailing security practices and compliance frameworks.
  2. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  3. Provide clear incident response contact information, including dedicated security or abuse email addresses.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and analytics tools to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance transparency by linking to certifications or compliance attestations relevant to information security.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Department of Finance
Description
The Department of Finance is an Australian Government department responsible for financial management, procurement, and governance policies to support government operations and public sector entities.
Key services
Government financial management, Procurement policies and frameworks, Grants administration, Investment fund governance, Risk management and assurance reviews
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, GovCMS, Bootstrap 4.5.2, Matomo Analytics, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Frameworks
GovCMS
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • IP anonymization in analytics
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security headers

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo, Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a comprehensive Australian government finance department portal.
  2. Content is extensive, well-structured, and professionally maintained.
  3. No signs of blocking or WAF challenges detected.
  4. WHOIS data is limited but consistent with government domain registration policies.
  5. Strong security posture with HTTPS and security headers.
  6. Privacy and cookie policies are present and GDPR compliant.
  7. No direct security incident response or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  8. Use of multiple analytics tools with IP anonymization.
  9. No suspicious or malicious external domains detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 with GovCMS, indicating a modern and government-approved CMS platform. It uses Bootstrap 4.5.2 for responsive design and integrates Matomo and Google Analytics for user tracking with IP anonymization to respect privacy. The site loads multiple asynchronous scripts from trusted domains, ensuring performance optimization. Meta tags and canonical links are properly set, supporting SEO best practices. Accessibility features appear well-implemented, and mobile optimization is excellent. Hosting appears to be managed by or for the Australian Government, ensuring compliance with government hosting standards. Performance is moderate, likely due to extensive content and analytics scripts, but overall user experience is smooth and professional.
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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