Skip to main content

Security report for gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit.be

Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit · Government · Belgium

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

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit website serves as the official portal for Belgium's data protection authority, providing comprehensive information, guidance, and services related to personal data protection. The site targets citizens and professionals, offering resources such as complaint filing, mediation requests, and access to official publications. The organization is positioned as a national government authority with a clear mission to enforce data protection principles. Technically, the website employs modern web technologies including ElasticMS CMS, Bootstrap framework, and privacy-focused analytics via Plausible.io. The site is well-structured, mobile-optimized, and accessible, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and cookie consent mechanisms in place, although explicit security headers and incident response policies are not publicly documented. Overall, the site demonstrates high professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance with GDPR requirements, making it a reliable resource for data protection information in Belgium.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

    • High

      No SPF record found

      SPF helps prevent email spoofing

      What to do: Add SPF record: "v=spf1 include:_spf.yourmailprovider.com ~all"

  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 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';…

  3. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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 gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit.be

This scan found 24 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. The full timeline opens with your unlock code.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
77
Security headers
45
Email security
40
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
66

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 Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit operates as a government regulatory body focused on data protection compliance and citizen rights. Its market position is authoritative within Belgium, serving as the primary data protection authority. The business model is non-commercial, centered on regulatory enforcement, public education, and complaint resolution. Key services include information dissemination, mediation, complaint handling, and publication of official documents. The organization maintains partnerships with related privacy-focused sites such as ikbeslis.be, enhancing outreach to specific demographics like youth. The website's content and structure support a broad target audience including citizens and professionals, with multilingual support. Growth indicators include regular publication of news and reports, and active social media engagement. The partnership ecosystem is limited but relevant to privacy advocacy and education.

Security posture

The website exhibits a solid security foundation with HTTPS enabled and a cookie consent mechanism that respects user privacy. The use of Plausible.io analytics reflects a commitment to privacy-friendly data collection. However, the absence of explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and lack of published security or incident response policies represent areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The site does not provide a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file, which could enhance transparency and security readiness. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be elevated by adopting additional best practices and formalizing incident response communications.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish explicit security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Develop and make publicly available a security policy and incident response plan to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program or publish a security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Consider adding direct contact information such as dedicated security or abuse email addresses to improve incident communication channels.
  5. Regularly review and update cookie and privacy policies to maintain compliance with evolving regulations and best practices.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit
Description
De Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit zorgt ervoor dat de grondbeginselen van gegevensbescherming correct nageleefd worden.
Key services
Information provision on data protection, Complaint handling, Mediation services, Publication of advices, recommendations, decisions, newsletters
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
ElasticMS (CMS), Bootstrap (CSS framework), FontAwesome (icons), Plausible.io (privacy-friendly analytics), Flexmail (newsletter service)
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected

Analytics and tracking

Services
Plausible.io
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
excellent

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Plausible.io
Marketing tools
Flexmail
Transparency
excellent

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a government data protection authority portal for Belgium
  2. Content is in Dutch with language switchers for French, English, and German
  3. Comprehensive cookie consent and privacy policy mechanisms implemented
  4. No direct email addresses or phone numbers found in the HTML content; contact is via forms
  5. Social media presence on LinkedIn and Twitter with official accounts
  6. No terms of service page explicitly found
  7. No explicit security or incident response policies published
  8. Use of modern web technologies and privacy-respecting analytics
  9. No suspicious or malicious content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on ElasticMS CMS with Bootstrap for responsive design and FontAwesome for icons, indicating a modern and maintainable technology stack. It integrates external services such as Plausible.io for privacy-respecting analytics and Flexmail for newsletter management. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization and accessibility features, with clear navigation and SEO-friendly meta tags. Performance is moderate, likely influenced by external resource loading. No deprecated or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. Opportunities exist to enhance technical robustness by adding security headers and improving incident response infrastructure. The hosting provider is not explicitly identified from the HTML content.
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

Reviews of this site

Share your experience with gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit.be. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit.be.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.