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Security report for statcan.gc.ca

Statistics Canada / Statistique Canada · Government · Canada

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in DNS health, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Statistics Canada is the official national statistical agency of Canada, providing comprehensive economic, social, and census data to the public, researchers, and policymakers. The website serves as a key platform for disseminating authoritative statistical information, supporting government and public decision-making. The site is bilingual, reflecting Canada's official languages, and uses the WET-BOEW framework common to Canadian government websites, ensuring accessibility and compliance with government standards. Technically, the website employs modern web standards including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, with responsive design elements to support mobile users. The use of WET-BOEW indicates a mature approach to accessibility and usability. However, the lack of visible security headers and explicit privacy or cookie policies suggests room for improvement in security posture and privacy compliance. Security-wise, the site is served over HTTPS (implied by the domain and typical government practice), but no explicit security headers or incident response information were found in the provided content. The absence of WHOIS data is typical for Canadian government domains managed by CIRA and does not detract from the domain's legitimacy. Overall, the site demonstrates a high level of trustworthiness and professionalism but would benefit from enhanced transparency around privacy and security policies. The overall risk assessment is low given the government affiliation and authoritative content, but strategic recommendations include publishing clear privacy and cookie policies, implementing security headers, and providing incident response contacts to strengthen user trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 100 · Medium
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. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • Critical

      DNS Resolution Failed

      Unable to resolve domain A records

      What to do: Verify domain is properly configured and not expired

  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

  3. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • 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

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

Keep watching statcan.gc.ca

This scan found 26 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
72
Security headers
45
Email security
60
DNS health
35
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
Average
60

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

Statistics Canada holds a dominant market position as Canada's official statistical agency, serving a broad audience including government bodies, researchers, and the general public. Its business model is government-funded, focusing on data collection, analysis, and dissemination rather than commercial revenue. The agency's competitive advantage lies in its authoritative data and government backing. The website supports this by providing access to census data, economic and social statistics, and research publications. Partnerships likely include other government departments and research institutions, though no explicit partner domains were identified. Growth indicators include ongoing updates to data and expansion of digital services. The agency's operations are aligned with public service mandates rather than commercial objectives.

Security posture

The current security posture of the website appears basic but functional. HTTPS is assumed but not explicitly confirmed in the provided data. No security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, or X-Content-Type-Options were detected, which are recommended best practices to mitigate common web vulnerabilities. There is no visible incident response or vulnerability disclosure information, which limits transparency and readiness perception. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were identified in the content analyzed. Compliance with GDPR or similar privacy regulations is not evident due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the site is likely secure given government hosting but lacks visible security maturity indicators on the public-facing site.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear consent mechanisms to improve privacy compliance.
  2. Implement and configure security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance security posture.
  3. Provide clear incident response and vulnerability disclosure information, including contact channels for security issues.
  4. Conduct regular security audits and update the website to reflect compliance with relevant data protection regulations such as GDPR and NIS2.
  5. Enhance transparency by including contact information, including data protection officer details, to build user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Statistics Canada / Statistique Canada
Description
Statistics Canada provides economic, social and census data. / Statistique Canada fournit des données sur l'économie, la société et le recensement.
Key services
Census of population, Census of agriculture, Economic statistics, Social statistics, Statistical data dissemination
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Bootstrap (implied by classes), Glyphicons, WET-BOEW (Web Experience Toolkit)
Frameworks
WET-BOEW
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a government statistical agency site with bilingual content (English and French).
  2. No WHOIS data available from CIRA WHOIS service, typical for Canadian government domains.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found in the provided HTML snippet.
  4. No contact emails, phone numbers, or social media links explicitly found in the provided content.
  5. No security or incident response policies or contacts found.
  6. No advertising or tracking scripts detected in the provided content.
  7. Site uses WET-BOEW framework, common for Canadian government websites, indicating accessibility and standard compliance focus.
  8. No signs of WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; site content appears accessible.
  9. No JSON-LD or Open Graph metadata detected in the provided snippet beyond basic meta tags.
  10. Site content is professional, consistent, and focused on statistical data dissemination.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a mature and government-standard web framework (WET-BOEW) that supports accessibility and responsive design. The technology stack includes HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, and Bootstrap-like components, ensuring compatibility across devices. Performance is moderate, with no explicit indicators of slow loading or technical debt. The site lacks visible CMS identification and hosting provider details. SEO and accessibility are well addressed through meta tags and semantic HTML. Technical risks include missing security headers and lack of visible privacy compliance mechanisms, which could impact user trust and regulatory adherence.
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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