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Security report for fraunhofer.de

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft · Technology · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is a leading German research organization specializing in applied sciences and technology transfer. The website reflects its role as a major player in innovation, targeting industry partners, researchers, and the public. The content is rich, professionally presented, and well-structured, supporting a large and diverse audience. Technically, the site uses modern JavaScript libraries and Adobe Experience Manager CMS, ensuring responsive design and good accessibility. Security posture is strong with HTTPS and DNSSEC, though some security headers and explicit incident response contacts could be improved. Privacy compliance is well addressed with comprehensive policies and consent mechanisms. Overall, the domain and website are legitimate and trustworthy, consistent with a reputable research institution.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of fraunhofer.de. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 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

5 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. 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  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 fraunhofer.de

This scan found 22 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
77
Security headers
75
Email security
75
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
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

Fraunhofer operates as an essential entity in the technology and research sector, focusing on energy, transport, healthcare, and manufacturing. Its business model centers on applied research and transferring innovations to industry. The organization maintains a strong market position in Germany and internationally. The website supports this with detailed information on institutes, strategic research fields, and initiatives. The absence of direct contact emails or phone numbers suggests a preference for controlled communication channels, likely via contact forms. The organization demonstrates strong branding consistency and trust indicators such as awards and structured content.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and DNSSEC, indicating a secure domain infrastructure. However, no explicit security headers were detected in the provided data, and no dedicated incident response or vulnerability disclosure pages were found. The use of modern libraries is positive but requires ongoing vulnerability management. Privacy policies and cookie consent mechanisms are present and GDPR compliant, reflecting good data protection practices. The lack of security.txt and direct security contacts is a minor gap. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced with additional headers and explicit incident response information.

Recommendations

  1. Implement HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, and X-Frame-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a security.txt file and provide clear incident response contact information to facilitate vulnerability reporting and improve transparency.
  3. Regularly audit and update third-party JavaScript libraries to mitigate risks from known vulnerabilities.
  4. Enhance contact information with direct company emails and phone numbers for support and security inquiries to improve trust and accessibility.
  5. Continue to monitor and improve privacy compliance, especially regarding data retention and user consent management.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Description
Die Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft mit Sitz in Deutschland ist eine der führenden Organisationen für anwendungsorientierte Forschung mit Forschungsschwerpunkten in zukunftsrelevanten Schlüsseltechnologien und dem Transfer von Forschungsergebnissen in die Industrie.
Key services
Anwendungsorientierte Forschung, Technologietransfer, Weiterbildung / Fraunhofer Academy
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Masonry, Bootstrap, Owl Carousel, Video.js, Validate.js, Picturefill
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • DNSSEC enabled
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content in German language.
  2. Strong focus on applied research and technology transfer.
  3. Comprehensive navigation structure with multi-level menus.
  4. Use of modern JavaScript libraries and responsive design.
  5. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  6. No explicit security.txt or incident response contact found.
  7. Privacy and cookie policies are present and GDPR compliant.
  8. No direct email or phone contact found in provided HTML; contact via form.
  9. WHOIS data limited due to DENIC privacy restrictions but consistent with legitimate entity.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Adobe Experience Manager CMS and leverages a variety of modern JavaScript libraries including jQuery, Masonry, Bootstrap, Owl Carousel, Video.js, and Validate.js. The site is responsive and optimized for mobile devices with good accessibility features. Performance is moderate, likely due to rich media content and complex navigation structures. SEO is well supported by meta tags and Open Graph data. Hosting provider details are not explicitly found. The technical stack is mature and suitable for a large research organization, though some modernization opportunities exist in security header implementation and performance optimization.
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. 68/100 −5Medium32 findingsView report
  2. 73/100Medium26 findingsView report
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