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Security report for garda.ie

An Garda Síochána · Government · Ireland

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

58/100

Risk levelMedium

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

An Garda Síochána is Ireland's national police and security service, providing comprehensive law enforcement, crime prevention, victim support, and community policing services. The website serves as an authoritative portal for public information, reporting crime, accessing victim services, and career opportunities within the Garda. It targets the general public in Ireland, victims of crime, and prospective Garda recruits. The site is well-branded, consistent, and professionally maintained, reflecting its government agency status. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including jQuery, Bootstrap, Owl Carousel, and Google Tag Manager for analytics and marketing. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly with clear navigation and structured content. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. Security best practices are partially implemented, including HTTPS usage and cookie consent mechanisms, but could be enhanced with additional security headers and a published security policy. The security posture is solid with no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, the absence of a dedicated security policy and incident response contact limits transparency in this area. Privacy compliance is strong, with clear privacy and cookie policies and GDPR adherence. Business credibility is high due to the official nature of the Garda, consistent branding, and comprehensive contact information. Overall, the website is a trustworthy, professional, and functional platform for Ireland's national police service. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, publishing a security policy and incident response contacts, and adding a security.txt file to improve vulnerability disclosure transparency.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 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

3 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

      No HTTPS encryption

      GDPR requires appropriate security measures for personal data

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS

    • 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. 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.

    • Critical

      No HTTPS Encryption

      Website does not use HTTPS encryption, making all data transmission vulnerable to interception

      What to do: Implement SSL/TLS certificate and redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching garda.ie

This scan found 19 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

€25per month

  • 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
0
Security headers
75
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
58

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

An Garda Síochána holds a dominant position as Ireland's official national police service, operating under government authority. Its business model is service-oriented, focusing on public safety, crime prevention, and community engagement. Revenue streams are government-funded, with no commercial activities evident. The target audience includes Irish citizens, victims of crime, community groups, and job seekers interested in policing careers. The website supports these segments with tailored content and services. The Garda maintains a strong partnership ecosystem with government bodies and community organizations, as reflected in its comprehensive online resources and community policing initiatives. Growth indicators include active recruitment campaigns and public engagement through social media and news updates. The organization's operations are transparent, with accessible reports, statistics, and contact information, reinforcing public trust and accountability.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent mechanisms in place. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options suggests room for improvement. There is no visible security policy or incident response contact information, which are important for transparency and user trust. Compliance with GDPR is evident through privacy and cookie policies, but a dedicated vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file is missing. Overall, the site is secure for general public use but could enhance its security culture and incident readiness by publishing more detailed security documentation and contacts.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and enforce security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to mitigate common web vulnerabilities.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices, data protection measures, and incident response procedures.
  3. Add a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure and improve transparency with security researchers.
  4. Provide clear incident response contact channels such as security@ or abuse@ email addresses to enable reporting of security issues.
  5. Optimize website performance and loading speed to enhance user experience, especially on mobile devices.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
An Garda Síochána
Description
Official Website of An Garda Síochána - Ireland's National Police Service
Key services
Crime reporting, Victim services, Crime prevention, Roads policing, Garda vetting, Community policing
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.6.0, Bootstrap 4.6.2, Owl Carousel, Font Awesome 4.6.3, SweetAlert2, Moment.js, Google Tag Manager
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS (implied by links to https://www.garda.ie)
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected in included scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is official and authoritative for Ireland's national police service
  2. Comprehensive navigation with clear sections for crime, victim services, careers, and contact information
  3. Strong presence of accessibility features and language options
  4. Cookie consent and privacy policies are prominently implemented
  5. No signs of blocking or WAF interference
  6. Use of modern JavaScript libraries and frameworks
  7. Social media integration with official Garda accounts
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern technology stack with jQuery 3.6.0, Bootstrap 4.6.2, Owl Carousel for UI components, Font Awesome for icons, and SweetAlert2 for alerts. Google Tag Manager is used for analytics and marketing tracking. The site is mobile responsive and includes accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels. No CMS is explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary platform. Hosting provider details are not disclosed. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in loading speed and resource optimization. The site is well-structured with valid HTML and CSS, supporting SEO best practices through meta tags and Open Graph data. Technical risks are minimal, but the lack of security headers and incident response information could impact operational security.
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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