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Security report for gfz-potsdam.de

GFZ Helmholtz-Zentrum für Geoforschung · Government · Germany

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

63/100

Risk levelMedium

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

GFZ Helmholtz-Zentrum für Geoforschung is Germany's national center for solid earth research, focusing on geoscientific studies of the Earth's geosphere and related systems. The website serves a broad audience including researchers, students, policymakers, and the public, providing scientific publications, research data, and educational resources. It operates under the Helmholtz Association umbrella, indicating a strong institutional backing and national significance. Technically, the website is built on TYPO3 CMS, a robust open-source content management system, and employs Matomo for privacy-conscious analytics. The site is well-structured, mobile-optimized, and accessible, with clear navigation and professional design. It uses HTTPS with good SSL configuration and respects user privacy through cookie consent mechanisms. Security posture is solid with no detected vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data, though explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not published. Privacy compliance is strong, with GDPR-aligned policies and consent banners. The domain WHOIS data aligns well with the organization's identity, supporting legitimacy. Overall, the website is a trustworthy, professional platform for geoscientific research dissemination, with recommendations to enhance security transparency and incident response readiness.

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

7 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';…

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

Keep watching gfz-potsdam.de

This scan found 25 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
52
Security headers
25
Email security
80
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
63

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 gfz-potsdam.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
269
Employees
4
Customers
245
Third parties
20
Weak passwords
22%

Latest record dated 2026-05-11 · 32 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 gfz-potsdam.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –wlc.gfz-potsdam.de2026-05-11
  • –wlc.gfz-potsdam.de2025-09-20
  • –wlc.gfz-potsdam.de2025-09-19
  • –wlc.gfz-potsdam.de2025-04-14

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

GFZ holds a prominent position as a government-funded research institution specializing in geosciences. Its competitive advantage lies in its national mandate, integration within the Helmholtz Association, and comprehensive scientific infrastructure. The business model is primarily research and knowledge dissemination funded by public sources. The target customers include academic researchers, governmental bodies, and educational institutions. Growth indicators include active publication, international collaborations, and educational offerings. The partnership ecosystem includes scientific networks and funding agencies. Operationally, GFZ maintains a modern digital presence with a focus on transparency and user engagement.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, privacy-respecting analytics, and cookie consent mechanisms. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive information were found. However, the absence of published security policies, incident response contacts, and security.txt files indicates room for improvement in transparency and readiness. Compliance with GDPR is evident, but explicit NIS2 or ISO 27001 frameworks are not mentioned. Overall, the security culture appears positive but could benefit from formal documentation and communication of security practices.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a formal security policy and incident response plan accessible on the website.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection.
  3. Provide explicit security incident contact channels (e.g., security@ or abuse@ email addresses).
  4. Consider implementing and publishing a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file.
  5. Maintain regular security audits and update privacy policies to reflect evolving regulations.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
GFZ Helmholtz-Zentrum für Geoforschung
Description
Das GFZ Helmholtz-Zentrum für Geoforschung ist das nationale Zentrum für die Erforschung der festen Erde. Es untersucht die Geosphäre im komplexen System Erde mit weiteren Teilsystemen und deren Kreisläufen und Ursache-Wirkungs-Ketten.
Key services
Geoscientific research, Scientific infrastructure and data services, Publications and knowledge transfer, Education and training
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TYPO3 CMS, Matomo Analytics, JavaScript, CSS, HTML5
Frameworks
TYPO3 CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner with opt-in mechanism
  • No exposed sensitive data detected
  • Use of Matomo with DoNotTrack and disableCookies settings

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo Analytics
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well-structured.
  2. Content is rich, relevant, and focused on geoscientific research.
  3. Strong presence of privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms.
  4. No signs of security blocking or WAF interference.
  5. Use of open source CMS TYPO3 and privacy-respecting analytics Matomo.
  6. Social media presence on multiple reputable platforms.
  7. No exposed sensitive data or obvious vulnerabilities detected.
  8. Lack of explicit security policy or incident response contact information.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses TYPO3 CMS, a well-established open-source platform suitable for complex content management. The tech stack includes modern HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript with Matomo analytics configured for privacy. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. The site uses canonical URLs and hreflang tags for SEO and multilingual support. There is no indication of legacy or vulnerable libraries. Hosting details are not explicit but name servers suggest institutional hosting. Technical risks are low, with opportunities to improve security headers and incident response mechanisms.
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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