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Security report for foster-europe.org

Foster Europe for strong European Regions · Government · Austria

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Foster Europe for strong European Regions is a non-profit foundation focused on promoting discourse and development related to federalism, decentralization, and regional development in Europe, particularly Austria. The organization operates a professional website hosted on the Squarespace platform, offering information about its projects, conferences, publications, and journal. The site targets stakeholders such as policymakers, academics, and civil society interested in European regional issues. Technically, the website uses modern web technologies including Squarespace CMS, jQuery, Google Analytics, and Typekit fonts, providing a responsive and well-structured user experience. Security-wise, the site enforces HTTPS and implements a cookie consent banner but lacks several important security headers, which could be improved to enhance protection against common web threats. The WHOIS data is privacy protected, which is typical for non-profit organizations, and no suspicious patterns were detected. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and compliant with basic privacy requirements, though it could benefit from publishing a privacy policy and terms of service to improve transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
85/ 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

3 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 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 Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

  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 foster-europe.org

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
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  • 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
62
Security headers
45
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
85
Average
70

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 foundation occupies a niche position in the European non-profit sector, focusing on regional development and decentralization discourse. Its business model revolves around knowledge dissemination, event organization, and publication of research outputs. The presence of social media channels and a calendar of upcoming events indicates active engagement with its community. The organization appears small in size, with a clear focus on Austrian and European regional issues. The lack of detailed business registration or VAT information on the website is typical for non-profits but limits deeper business intelligence. The partnership with the Danube Strategy (danubestrategy.eu) suggests collaboration within European regional networks.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security posture with HTTPS enabled and a cookie consent mechanism in place, indicating awareness of privacy regulations. However, the absence of critical security headers such as HSTS, Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and others reduces its resilience against common web attacks like clickjacking, MIME sniffing, and cross-site scripting. No incident response or security policy information is published, which is a gap in transparency and preparedness. The use of third-party analytics and tag management tools introduces moderate user tracking, which is partially mitigated by the cookie banner. Overall, the site is secure enough for its informational purpose but could improve by adopting recommended security headers and publishing security policies.

Recommendations

  1. Implement HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) header to enforce HTTPS usage.
  2. Add Content-Security-Policy header to mitigate cross-site scripting risks.
  3. Include X-Frame-Options header to prevent clickjacking attacks.
  4. Publish a clear privacy policy and terms of service to enhance transparency and compliance.
  5. Consider publishing a security policy and incident response contact information to improve trust and preparedness.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Foster Europe for strong European Regions
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Foster Europe for strong European Regions
Description
Dezentralisierung, Regionalisierung und ländliche Entwicklung in Europa. Die Stiftung widmet sich der Förderung der Diskurse zu Föderalismus, Dezentralisierung und Regionen in Europa und Österreich.
Key services
Promotion of discourse on federalism and decentralization, Organization of conferences and events, Publication of journals and reports, Project support
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Squarespace CMS, jQuery 3.7.1, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Typekit Fonts
Platforms
Squarespace
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
65/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner implemented

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and maintained on Squarespace platform.
  2. Content is in German (Austria) language, targeting European regional development stakeholders.
  3. Cookie consent banner is implemented with opt-in and opt-out options.
  4. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service pages found on main site.
  5. Contact information includes official email and physical address in Austria.
  6. Social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy found.
  8. No explicit security or incident response policies published.
  9. WHOIS data is not publicly available, indicating privacy protection.
  10. No signs of adult or questionable content.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Squarespace platform, leveraging its built-in CMS capabilities and hosting. It uses jQuery 3.7.1 and Google Analytics for user tracking and performance monitoring. The site loads Typekit fonts asynchronously for improved performance. The design is responsive and optimized for mobile devices. The site uses structured data (JSON-LD) for organization and website schema, aiding SEO. Performance is moderate, with no major blocking scripts detected. Accessibility features are basic but present. The lack of advanced security headers and policies represents a technical debt that should be addressed to improve security posture.
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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