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Security report for forschungslandkarte.de

Stiftung zur Förderung der Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK) · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Email security and 2 other checks.

Security score

61/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Forschungslandkarte website is an official platform provided by the Stiftung zur Förderung der Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK) to present and promote the research focuses of German higher education institutions. It serves as a bilingual informational and marketing tool that supports universities and applied sciences institutions in showcasing their research profiles. The site targets academic institutions, researchers, students, and policy makers, providing structured search capabilities and contact points for collaboration. Technically, the site is built on TYPO3 CMS with Bootstrap for responsive design and uses Matomo analytics configured with privacy considerations. The website demonstrates good performance, accessibility, and SEO practices. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and a comprehensive cookie consent mechanism, though it lacks some advanced security headers and a public security policy. Overall, the domain registration and WHOIS data align well with the institutional nature of the site, indicating legitimacy and trustworthiness.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
40/ 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

7 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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  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 forschungslandkarte.de

This scan found 26 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
42
Security headers
80
Email security
60
DNS health
45
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
40
Average
61

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 forschungslandkarte.de, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for forschungslandkarte.de right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

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

The platform occupies a niche position as an official research mapping service under the HRK umbrella, leveraging partnerships with German universities and applied sciences institutions. Its business model is non-commercial, focusing on information dissemination and institutional marketing support. The site benefits from strong brand association with HRK and integrates with related platforms like Hochschulkompass. The absence of commercial advertising and affiliate programs aligns with its educational and governmental sector focus. Contact information is transparent, and the site is regularly updated, supporting ongoing engagement with its target audience. Growth potential lies in expanding data coverage and enhancing search functionalities.

Security posture

The website maintains a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, a detailed cookie consent and privacy framework compliant with GDPR, and no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, it lacks explicit security policies, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms, which are recommended best practices for institutional websites. The use of Matomo analytics is privacy-conscious, and no third-party ad networks or trackers are present. Security headers are not explicitly detected, suggesting room for improvement. Overall, the site is secure but could enhance transparency and incident readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Implement standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to harden the site against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy page and provide clear incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and dependencies to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and continue monitoring performance to maintain excellent user experience.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Stiftung zur Förderung der Hochschulrektorenkonferenz
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Stiftung zur Förderung der Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK)
Description
Die HRK-Forschungslandkarte informiert über institutionell profilbildende Forschungsschwerpunkte der deutschen Hochschulen und ermöglicht die Suche nach Forschungsthemen fachlich und regional.
Key services
Bereitstellung von Forschungslandkarten für Universitäten und Fachhochschulen, Suchfunktionen für Forschungsschwerpunkte, Bereitstellung von Kontaktinformationen für Kooperationen, Unterstützung der Marketing- und Internationalisierungsstrategien der Hochschulen
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TYPO3 CMS, Bootstrap, Matomo Analytics
Frameworks
TYPO3 CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism with detailed information
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is an official offering of the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK).
  2. Content is bilingual (German and English) with clear language switch options.
  3. Comprehensive cookie consent and privacy information provided.
  4. No forms detected that collect personal data directly on the homepage.
  5. Contact information includes named persons with phone numbers and obfuscated email.
  6. No social media links detected in the provided HTML.
  7. Uses Matomo for analytics with privacy-respecting configuration.
  8. No visible security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy.
  9. No terms of service page found.
  10. Website uses modern responsive design with Bootstrap and TYPO3 CMS.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern TYPO3 CMS platform with Bootstrap for responsive design, ensuring good mobile optimization and accessibility. The use of Matomo analytics reflects a privacy-focused approach to user tracking. The site loads CSS and JS assets efficiently, though performance is moderate rather than fast, possibly due to large images or server response times. No deprecated or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML source. SEO is well addressed with canonical links, hreflang tags, and meta viewport settings. The site architecture supports bilingual content with clear language toggles. Hosting appears stable and aligned with the academic sector, likely managed by or in cooperation with Hochschulkompass infrastructure.
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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