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Security report for gocolumbialions.com

Columbia University · Education · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

74/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Columbia University Athletics operates an official website dedicated to providing comprehensive information about its sports teams, schedules, rosters, news, and ticketing services. As part of an Ivy League institution, the site targets students, alumni, sports enthusiasts, and the general public interested in collegiate athletics. The website leverages a mature technical infrastructure based on the Sidearm Sports platform, integrating modern JavaScript libraries and content delivery networks to ensure good performance and mobile optimization. Analytics and advertising are managed primarily through Google services, with moderate user tracking observed. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforcement and domain transfer protections, though improvements such as DNSSEC and enhanced security headers are recommended. Privacy compliance is basic, with a privacy policy present but lacking a cookie consent mechanism despite the use of tracking technologies. Overall, the site reflects a professional and trustworthy digital presence consistent with a large educational institution's athletics department.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
70/ 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

5 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

  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 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 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

  4. 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.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching gocolumbialions.com

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

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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
65
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
70
Average
74

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 website serves as a central hub for Columbia University's athletics programs, offering detailed coverage of both men's and women's sports across numerous disciplines. Its business model focuses on engagement and information dissemination rather than direct revenue generation, though ticket sales are facilitated via a third-party service. The site benefits from strong brand recognition and partnership with the Ivy League sports network. Growth indicators include active social media channels and integration with marketing and analytics tools. The partnership ecosystem includes ticketing providers and Ivy League sports platforms, supporting a comprehensive user experience. Strategic observations highlight the importance of maintaining compliance with privacy regulations and enhancing security measures to protect user data and institutional reputation.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to strong security maturity level, with HTTPS enforced and domain registration protections in place. However, the absence of DNSSEC and certain security headers such as Content Security Policy and X-Content-Type-Options represent gaps that could be exploited. No vulnerability disclosure or security policy pages were found, indicating limited transparency in incident response readiness. The use of multiple third-party analytics and advertising scripts increases the attack surface and necessitates vigilant monitoring. Compliance with GDPR is suggested by the privacy policy, but the lack of a cookie consent mechanism is a compliance risk. Overall, the security culture appears functional but could benefit from formalized policies and enhanced technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement a comprehensive Content Security Policy header to mitigate cross-site scripting risks.
  3. Publish a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure and improve transparency.
  4. Add explicit security headers such as X-Content-Type-Options and X-Frame-Options to enhance browser security.
  5. Deploy a cookie consent mechanism to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations, especially given the use of tracking technologies.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Columbia University
Description
The official athletics website for the Columbia University Lions
Key services
Sports team information, Schedules and results, Roster details, News and archives, Ticket sales
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, RequireJS, jQuery, Knockout.js, Underscore.js, LazySizes, Slick Carousel, Sidearm Sports platform
Frameworks
Sidearm Sports CMS
Platforms
Cloudfront CDN, Rackspace DNS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Google Tag Manager for controlled script loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, comScore
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
DoubleClick, Google Ad Services
Tracking pixels
comScore, DoubleClick Floodlight, Krux (krxd.net)
Marketing tools
Transcend Consent Manager
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official athletics website for Columbia University
  2. Extensive sports coverage with men's and women's teams
  3. Use of multiple Google services for analytics and advertising
  4. No visible contact emails or phone numbers on homepage
  5. No explicit terms of service or security policy pages found
  6. Privacy policy present but basic
  7. No cookie consent banner detected despite tracking scripts
  8. Good accessibility features such as skip links and aria labels
  9. No DNSSEC enabled on domain
  10. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Sidearm Sports CMS platform, utilizing a modern JavaScript stack including RequireJS, Knockout.js, and jQuery. Content delivery is optimized via AWS Cloudfront CDN, and DNS is managed through Rackspace. Performance is moderate with good mobile responsiveness and accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA labels. SEO is supported by proper meta tags, Open Graph data, and structured JSON-LD markup. However, the site lacks some advanced security headers and DNSSEC, which are technical risks. The integration of multiple third-party analytics and advertising scripts necessitates careful management to avoid performance degradation and privacy issues. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but has room for modernization and security hardening.
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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