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Security report for freie-universitaet-berlin.de

Freie Universität Berlin · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

53/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Freie Universität Berlin is a leading public university in Germany, recognized as an excellence university since 2007. It offers a broad range of academic programs across twelve faculties and three central institutes, serving students, researchers, and academic staff with a strong emphasis on international cooperation and research excellence. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content, clear navigation, and multilingual support. Technically, the site is built on a Ruby on Rails framework with Infopark CMS, leveraging modern web technologies and ensuring good accessibility and SEO practices. Security posture is solid with HTTPS and CSRF protections, though some security headers and explicit policies could be improved. Privacy compliance is evident with a comprehensive privacy policy, but cookie consent mechanisms are lacking. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-aligned with the institution's academic mission.

Scanned

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

8 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

  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 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

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

    • 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';…

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Keep watching freie-universitaet-berlin.de

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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
47
Security headers
15
Email security
55
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
53

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 freie-universitaet-berlin.de, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for freie-universitaet-berlin.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 university holds a strong market position as a top-tier German academic institution with a focus on excellence in research and teaching. Its business model centers on public education and research funding, supported by extensive international partnerships and collaborations. The website's detailed organizational structure and service offerings indicate a well-established institution targeting students, researchers, and academic professionals. Growth indicators include active international programs and a broad portfolio of academic disciplines. The partnership ecosystem includes collaborations with global universities and research networks, enhancing its academic reach and reputation.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, CSRF token implementation, and no visible exposure of sensitive data. However, the absence of certain security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Content-Type-Options suggests room for enhancement. There is no publicly available incident response or security policy documentation, which could be a gap in transparency and readiness. GDPR compliance is supported by a detailed privacy policy and a designated data protection officer contact. No vulnerabilities or malicious indicators were detected in the analyzed content.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive security policy and incident response plan accessible on the website.
  2. Add Content-Security-Policy and X-Content-Type-Options HTTP headers to strengthen browser security.
  3. Introduce a cookie consent mechanism to enhance GDPR compliance and user privacy transparency.
  4. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
  5. Enhance visibility of data protection officer contact details and security best practices to build user trust.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Freie Universität Berlin
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Freie Universität Berlin
Description
Die Freie Universität Berlin gehört seit 2007 zu den Exzellenzuniversitäten in Deutschland – sie ist führend in Wissenschaft und Lehre, in der Region vielfältig vernetzt und international aufgestellt. Sie bietet an zwölf Fachbereichen und drei Zentralinstituten mehr als 150 Studiengänge an.
Key services
Academic programs (Bachelor, Master, Staatsexamen, Promotion), Research and innovation, International exchange and cooperation, Student services and counseling, Library and e-learning services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, FontAwesome, SVG
Frameworks
Ruby on Rails (indicated by meta generator tag)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • CSRF tokens present in meta tags
  • 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. Comprehensive and well-structured website for a major German university.
  2. Strong focus on academic programs, research, and international cooperation.
  3. Good accessibility and multilingual support (German and English).
  4. No signs of malicious or suspicious content.
  5. Limited explicit security policy or incident response information publicly available.
  6. No cookie consent mechanism detected despite GDPR compliance indications.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using Ruby on Rails with Infopark CMS Fiona, indicating a robust and scalable infrastructure suitable for academic institutions. The use of modern web standards such as HTML5, CSS3, SVG, and JavaScript libraries like jQuery and FontAwesome supports a responsive and accessible user experience. Hosting appears to be managed through academic networks (DFN and Stanford), which may provide reliable and secure infrastructure. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and SEO practices. Opportunities exist to modernize security headers and implement advanced privacy controls to reduce technical debt and improve compliance.
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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