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Security report for gov.ie

Government of Ireland · Government · Ireland

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, Email security and 2 other checks.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The website gov.ie serves as the official digital portal for the Government of Ireland, providing centralized access to public services and government information. It targets the general public and residents of Ireland, offering multilingual support primarily in English and Irish. The site is positioned as the authoritative government platform, reflecting a high level of professionalism and trustworthiness. Technically, the site employs modern web technologies including Matomo for privacy-conscious analytics, Google Fonts for typography, and modular JavaScript. The design is responsive and accessible, optimized for mobile devices, and structured with clear navigation. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and disables cookies in its analytics to enhance privacy. However, explicit security headers and published security policies are absent, representing areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the provided content. Overall, the site demonstrates a strong business credibility and content quality consistent with an official government entity. Strategic recommendations include publishing comprehensive privacy and security policies, adding security headers, and providing vulnerability disclosure mechanisms to further enhance trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 100 · Low
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

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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';…

  2. 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.

    • High

      No DMARC record found

      DMARC provides email authentication and reporting

      What to do: Add DMARC record: "v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com"

  3. 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

  4. DNS health

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

    • High

      Potential Subdomain Takeover

      Subdomain api.gov.ie points to unregistered service govie-prod-cms-lb-130777838.eu-west-1.elb.amazonaws.com

      What to do: Remove or fix CNAME record to prevent subdomain takeover

      • WSTG-CONF-10
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching gov.ie

This scan found 18 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.

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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
77
Security headers
50
Email security
65
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
73

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

gov.ie operates as a government portal, centralizing access to public services and information for Irish citizens. Its business model is service-oriented, focusing on information dissemination and digital government service delivery. The site benefits from the trust inherent in its official status and .ie domain. While no direct revenue streams are evident, the platform supports government transparency and citizen engagement. The partnership ecosystem is not explicitly detailed, but the use of government-owned analytics infrastructure suggests internal collaboration. Growth indicators include multilingual support and modern web technologies, positioning the site well for continued public service expansion.

Security posture

The security posture of gov.ie is solid with mandatory HTTPS and privacy-respecting analytics configuration. The absence of security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options is a notable gap. No incident response or security contact information is published, limiting transparency in security management. The site shows no signs of vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data in the analyzed content. Compliance with GDPR is implied but not explicitly documented. Overall, the site reflects a mature security baseline typical for government portals but would benefit from enhanced security policy publication and technical hardening.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish comprehensive security headers including CSP, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options.
  2. Publish clear privacy policy and terms of service documents accessible from the homepage.
  3. Establish and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  4. Provide explicit contact information for data protection officer and incident response.
  5. Optimize site performance and conduct regular security audits to maintain compliance and trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Government of Ireland
Description
gov.ie is the official website of the Government of Ireland. It serves as a central hub for accessing public services and government information
Key services
Access to public services, Government information dissemination, Multilingual support (English and Irish)
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Matomo Analytics, Google Fonts (Lato, Material Symbols Outlined), JavaScript (ES Modules), CSS with Tailwind-like utility classes
Performance
moderate
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No cookies used by Matomo tracker (disableCookies called)
  • Privacy-conscious analytics setup

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Matomo Analytics
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is official Irish government portal
  2. Content is comprehensive and professionally presented
  3. Strong privacy focus in analytics setup
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in HTML
  5. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service found in provided content
  6. No WHOIS data available to extract registrar or dates
  7. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found
  8. No signs of WAF or blocking mechanisms
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern tech stack with modular JavaScript, Google Fonts, and Matomo analytics configured for privacy. The CSS employs utility classes resembling Tailwind CSS conventions, indicating a modern styling approach. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO meta tags and Open Graph data. Hosting provider and CMS are not explicitly identified. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in loading speed and resource optimization. No deprecated or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a robust and user-friendly government portal.
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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