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Security report for forskningsradet.no

Norges Forskningsråd · Government · Norway

Low risk. 2 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS.

Security score

83/100

Risk levelLow

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

Norges Forskningsråd is the Norwegian Research Council, a government organization responsible for advising the government and ministries on research policy and distributing approximately ten billion NOK annually for research and innovation. The website reflects a mature digital presence with modern technologies including Microsoft Azure hosting, Piwik PRO analytics, and a comprehensive cookie consent mechanism. The site is well-branded, professionally designed, and fully accessible with clear contact information and social media presence. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and secure cookie practices, though explicit security headers are not detected in the provided data. WHOIS data is unavailable, likely due to registry privacy policies, but this does not detract from the site's legitimacy given its government affiliation and trust signals. Overall, the site demonstrates a strong balance of business credibility, technical implementation, and privacy compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
88/ 100 · Low
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

2 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.

    • 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
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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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
57
Security headers
80
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
88
Average
83

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 Norwegian Research Council holds a dominant position as the national research funding agency, serving government bodies, research institutions, and innovators. Its business model centers on government funding allocation and policy advising. The presence of subsidiaries such as Nysgjerrigper, Forskningsdagene, and Skattefunn indicates a broad ecosystem supporting research dissemination and innovation incentives. The organization targets a specialized audience including researchers and policymakers. The website's content and structure support transparency and engagement, reinforcing its authoritative market position.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS with strong SSL configuration and uses Microsoft ASP.NET security cookies to ensure session integrity. The cookie consent banner is comprehensive and GDPR compliant, indicating good privacy practices. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analysis. Incident response and security policy information are not publicly available on the site, which could be enhanced to improve security transparency and readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  2. Provide a publicly accessible security policy and incident response contact information to enhance transparency and trust.
  3. Consider publishing a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure and improve security collaboration.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and analytics tools to ensure no vulnerable libraries are included.
  5. Enhance SEO by ensuring all meta tags and structured data are fully optimized and maintained.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Norges Forskningsråd
Description
Norges forskningsråd er en forskningspolitisk rådgiver for regjeringen og departementene og fordeler årlig rundt ti millarder til forsking og innovasjon.
Key services
Research funding, Innovation support, Research policy advising
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Microsoft Azure, Piwik PRO analytics, CookieInformation consent management, Microsoft ASP.NET
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner with detailed cookie info
  • Use of Microsoft ASP.NET security cookies

Analytics and tracking

Services
Piwik PRO, Microsoft Application Insights
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Piwik PRO
Marketing tools
CookieInformation
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 with no blocking or WAF challenge
  2. Comprehensive cookie consent and privacy policy present
  3. Official government organization with clear contact info
  4. Uses modern analytics and hosting technologies
  5. No visible security headers detected in provided data
  6. WHOIS data unavailable, possibly due to registry restrictions
Technical notes

Notes

The website is hosted on Microsoft Azure and uses a modern tech stack including ASP.NET and Piwik PRO for analytics. It employs a cookie consent management platform from CookieInformation, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations. The site is mobile optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured data. Performance is moderate, likely influenced by the use of multiple third-party scripts. No CMS was explicitly detected. The technical infrastructure supports a stable and secure user experience but could benefit from additional security headers and performance tuning.
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. 49/100High35 findingsView report
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