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Security report for fu-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

52/100

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 a diverse audience including students, researchers, staff, and international partners. The website reflects a mature digital presence with comprehensive content, clear navigation, and multilingual support. Technically, it is built on a Ruby on Rails-based CMS (Infopark CMS Fiona), utilizing modern web standards such as HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and SVG graphics. The hosting infrastructure appears linked to academic networks, enhancing reliability and trust. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS and CSRF protections, though explicit security headers and incident response policies are not evident in the provided data. Privacy compliance is strong with a comprehensive privacy policy and GDPR adherence, but cookie consent mechanisms could be improved. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-suited to its educational mission.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of fu-berlin.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

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 fu-berlin.de

This scan found 31 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
42
Security headers
15
Email security
55
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
52

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 fu-berlin.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
6,899
Employees
90
Customers
5,644
Third parties
1,165
Weak passwords
13%

Latest record dated 2026-06-17 · 121 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for fu-berlin.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –drs.fu-berlin.de2026-06-17
  • –veranstaltung.weiterbildung.fu-berlin.de2026-06-06
  • –identity.fu-berlin.de2026-06-01
  • –exchange.fu-berlin.de2026-05-28
  • –mysite.cloud.fu-berlin.de2026-05-28

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)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 institution with a focus on excellence in research and teaching. Its business model centers on public education and research funding, supported by extensive academic offerings and international collaborations. The target audience spans prospective and current students, academic staff, researchers, and external partners. The website supports this ecosystem with detailed service portals, career resources, and international programs. Partnerships with research networks and academic institutions are evident, though no commercial subsidiaries or parent companies are identified. The university's branding is consistent and reinforces its reputation. Growth indicators include active internationalization and research funding initiatives.

Security posture

The security maturity level is moderate to good. The presence of HTTPS and CSRF tokens indicates baseline protections. However, the absence of visible security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, or X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not publicly documented, which could hinder rapid mitigation of security incidents. Data protection officer contact is available, supporting GDPR compliance. Overall, the security culture appears adequate but could benefit from enhanced transparency and technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce comprehensive HTTP security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options).
  2. Establish and publish a formal vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  3. Introduce a cookie consent banner with explicit user consent mechanisms to improve privacy compliance.
  4. Document and publicize incident response procedures and security contact channels to enhance trust and readiness.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and CMS components to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
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, Research, International cooperation, Student services, Career services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, SVG
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS usage (implied by URL)
  • CSRF token present in meta tags

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 a comprehensive, well-structured university portal.
  2. Content is primarily in German with English version available.
  3. Extensive navigation covering university, study programs, research, international affairs, and administration.
  4. No signs of malicious content or phishing.
  5. No visible security headers in provided data; recommend review.
  6. No explicit cookie consent banner detected.
  7. No direct email addresses or phone numbers extracted from visible content.
  8. No social media links explicitly found in provided HTML snippet.
  9. Uses Infopark CMS Fiona with Ruby on Rails backend.
  10. SVG logos and modern web technologies used.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by Infopark CMS Fiona on a Ruby on Rails backend, indicating a robust and scalable platform suitable for complex academic content management. The front-end uses modern web standards including HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and SVG for graphics, ensuring good compatibility and visual quality. The site is mobile optimized and accessible, with clear navigation and structured content. Hosting appears to leverage academic DNS servers, likely providing stable and secure infrastructure. Performance is moderate, with potential for optimization in asset delivery and caching. No major technical debt or deprecated technologies were identified, but security header implementation and cookie management could be improved.
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. 50/100Medium39 findingsView report
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