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Security report for garching.de

Stadt Garching · Government · Germany

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

57/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website www.garching.de is the official municipal portal for the city of Garching, Germany. It provides comprehensive information and services related to city administration, politics, family and education, social services, housing, economy, mobility, nature and climate protection, culture, research, and religious sites. The site targets residents, visitors, and local businesses, offering key services such as online appointment booking and detailed local government information. The business model is public service with a focus on community engagement and transparency. Technically, the website uses a modern tech stack including jQuery, Bootstrap 5, Font Awesome, and integrates accessibility tools like ReadSpeaker and Google Translate. It is built on the EGOTEC CMS platform and hosted with DomainControl. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, with good performance and clear navigation. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and employs email obfuscation to reduce spam. However, explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options are not evident. There is no visible security policy or incident response contact, and no vulnerability disclosure mechanism is found. Privacy compliance is good with a comprehensive GDPR-compliant privacy policy, though cookie consent mechanisms are minimal. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and safe for general audiences. It effectively serves its role as a municipal information and service portal. Strategic improvements include enhancing security headers, implementing cookie consent, and publishing incident response contacts to strengthen security posture and compliance.

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

6 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"

    • 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 garching.de

This scan found 30 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
62
Security headers
30
Email security
55
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
57

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 city of Garching operates this website as a government entity providing essential public services and information. The site positions itself as a central hub for residents and stakeholders, offering services like online appointments, event calendars, and detailed administrative information. The business model is non-commercial, focusing on transparency, community engagement, and service delivery. The presence of partner domains such as karriere-garching.de and kultur-garching.de indicates a collaborative ecosystem supporting employment and cultural activities. The site’s content and structure reflect a mature digital presence with moderate size and reach within the local government sector.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level. HTTPS is enforced, and email addresses are protected via JavaScript obfuscation. However, the absence of explicit security headers and lack of a published security policy or incident response contact reduce the overall security posture. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The site lacks a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file, which are best practices for transparency and incident management. Privacy compliance is strong with a GDPR-compliant privacy policy, but cookie consent mechanisms are not fully implemented. Overall, the site is secure for its purpose but could benefit from enhanced security controls and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  2. Introduce a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply fully with GDPR cookie regulations and improve user privacy transparency.
  3. Publish a security policy and provide clear incident response contact information to enhance trust and preparedness.
  4. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries to ensure no vulnerable components are included and maintain up-to-date dependencies.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Stadt Garching
Description
Official municipal website providing information and services related to the city of Garching, Germany. It offers details on city life, administration, politics, family and education, social services, building and housing, economy and mobility, nature and climate protection, culture and recreation, research, and religious sites.
Key services
Online appointment booking for residents' registration office, Information on city administration and politics, Family and education services, Social and senior citizen services, Building and housing information, Economic development and mobility, Nature and climate protection initiatives, Cultural events and recreation, Research and university-related information, Churches and cemeteries information
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Bootstrap 5, Font Awesome, ReadSpeaker webReader, Google Translate integration
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Email obfuscation via JavaScript functions
  • No visible vulnerable libraries

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Marketing tools
Google Translate
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenge.
  2. Content is comprehensive and well-structured for a municipal government site.
  3. Privacy policy is present and GDPR compliant; cookie consent mechanism is missing or minimal.
  4. Contact information is clearly provided including email obfuscation to reduce spam.
  5. Use of modern web technologies and responsive design.
  6. No visible security policy or incident response contact found.
  7. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file detected.
  8. External links mostly to official or partner domains related to local government and culture.
  9. No advertising or tracking pixels detected beyond Google Translate integration.
  10. No adult or questionable content detected; site is safe for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the EGOTEC CMS platform with a modern front-end stack including Bootstrap 5 and jQuery. It uses Font Awesome for icons and integrates accessibility tools like ReadSpeaker and Google Translate for multilingual support. The site is responsive and optimized for mobile devices. Hosting is managed via DomainControl nameservers, indicating use of a commercial domain registrar and hosting provider. Performance is moderate with a well-structured HTML layout and use of carousel components for dynamic content. There is room for improvement in security header implementation and cookie consent management. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a stable and user-friendly municipal website.
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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