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Security report for fosscon.us

FOSSCON · Technology · United States

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

55/100

Risk levelMedium

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

FOSSCON is a small, volunteer-run annual conference focused on Free and Open Source Software held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The organization has been active since 2013 and serves a diverse audience including students, developers, and IT professionals. The website provides information about the event, its history, and team, but lacks formal privacy and cookie policies. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 8 with Bootstrap and uses Google Analytics for visitor tracking. While HTTPS is enabled and IP anonymization is configured for analytics, the site lacks DNSSEC and security headers, which are recommended for enhanced security. The WHOIS data aligns well with the website's claims, showing a consistent and legitimate registration. Overall, the site is functional and professional but could improve in privacy compliance and security best practices.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 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

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 Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • 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

      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

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

Keep watching fosscon.us

This scan found 24 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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  • 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
72
Security headers
40
Email security
85
DNS health
55
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
35
Average
55

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

FOSSCON occupies a niche in the technology conference market, focusing on open source software communities primarily in the Philadelphia region but attracting attendees globally. Its volunteer-driven model and steady growth indicate strong community engagement. Revenue streams likely include sponsorships and attendee registrations. The organization maintains active social media channels to engage its audience. The lack of formal policies and limited contact information may hinder trust with new attendees or sponsors. There is an opportunity to expand digital presence and formalize compliance to enhance credibility.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security posture with HTTPS enabled and anonymized analytics tracking. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options exposes the site to potential risks like DNS spoofing and clickjacking. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is provided, which limits transparency in security management. The site does not collect sensitive data visibly, reducing immediate risk, but adding security policies and headers would strengthen defenses and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing.
  2. Implement standard security headers (CSP, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options) to mitigate common web attacks.
  3. Publish clear privacy and cookie policies to improve GDPR and privacy compliance.
  4. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy and incident response contact to enhance security transparency.
  5. Expand contact information with phone numbers and physical address details to improve trust and business credibility.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
FOSSCON
Description
FOSSCON is a Free and Open Source software conference held annually in Philadelphia PA. It brings together users of Free and Open Source Software from various fields including students, system and network administrators, developers, and executives. The event features talks, workshops, exams, sponsors, and exhibits.
Key services
Annual conference event, Talks, workshops, and exams, Community engagement and education
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 8, Bootstrap 3.4.1, Google Analytics
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
60/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Anonymize IP in Google Analytics

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
moderate

Key observations

  1. Website is a community-driven conference site with volunteer management.
  2. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found, indicating compliance gaps.
  3. Uses Drupal CMS with Bootstrap and Google Analytics for tracking.
  4. No security headers detected; DNSSEC not enabled.
  5. Contact information limited to a single email address for the director.
  6. No phone numbers or physical address explicitly listed on the website.
  7. Social media presence on Twitter and Facebook.
  8. No forms collecting personal data except a search form and talk submission form (not detailed here).
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses Drupal 8 CMS with Bootstrap 3.4.1 for responsive design and Google Analytics for visitor tracking. The site is mobile optimized and has a clear navigation structure. Performance is moderate with no major errors detected. However, the site lacks modern security headers and DNSSEC, which are important for protecting user data and site integrity. The use of older Bootstrap 3.4.1 indicates some technical debt and potential modernization opportunities. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the business needs but could benefit from security and compliance enhancements.
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. 57/100Medium31 findingsView report
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