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Security report for grants.gov.au

Australian Government · Government · Australia

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

75/100

Risk levelMedium

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

GrantConnect is the Australian Government's official grants information system, providing centralized publication of forecast and current grant opportunities as well as grant awards and decisions. The platform targets grant applicants and stakeholders seeking government funding opportunities. It operates as a government service platform facilitating access to grant information and application processes, positioning itself as the authoritative source for Australian Government grants. The website features consistent branding with Australian Government logos and a Creative Commons license, reinforcing its official status. Technically, the website employs standard web technologies including JavaScript and monitoring via New Relic. The site demonstrates good mobile optimization and accessibility features, with a moderate performance profile. While no specific CMS or hosting provider is identified, the site uses modern JavaScript monitoring and error tracking tools. The site structure and navigation are clear, supporting a positive user experience. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and includes CSRF tokens in login forms, indicating attention to secure data handling. However, explicit security headers and published security policies are absent, and no incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is found. The WHOIS data is unavailable due to privacy or query failure, but the use of a .gov.au domain and consistent official branding strongly support legitimacy. No WAF or blocking mechanisms are detected, and no vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data are apparent. Overall, GrantConnect presents a trustworthy and professional government service website with good content quality and technical implementation. To enhance security posture and privacy compliance, it is recommended to publish explicit privacy, cookie, and security policies, implement cookie consent mechanisms, and provide clear contact information for security incidents.

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

4 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.

    • 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

  2. 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

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This scan found 17 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
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  • 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
67
Security headers
75
Email security
83
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
Average
75

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

GrantConnect serves as a critical government platform for disseminating grant-related information to Australian citizens and organizations. Its market position as an official government portal provides a competitive advantage through trust and authority. The business model is service-oriented, focusing on information dissemination rather than revenue generation. The target customer segments include grant applicants, government agencies, and stakeholders involved in public funding. The platform's partnership ecosystem includes related government help sites. Growth indicators are not explicit but the platform's role is essential in government grant administration. Strategic observations highlight the importance of maintaining high trust and compliance standards given the sensitive nature of government funding information.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforcement and CSRF protection on forms. However, the absence of explicit security headers (such as CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options) and lack of published security or incident response policies indicate gaps in security best practices. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analysis. The lack of cookie consent mechanisms and privacy policy links reduces privacy compliance. Incident response readiness and security culture indicators are not evident from the public content. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a government informational site but could be improved by adopting comprehensive security policies and transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Publish explicit privacy, cookie, and security policies prominently on the website.
  2. Implement a cookie consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations.
  3. Add security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options.
  4. Provide clear contact information for security incidents and vulnerability disclosures.
  5. Regularly review and update WHOIS information and consider transparency to improve trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Australian Government
Description
GrantConnect provides centralised publication of forecast and current Australian Government grant opportunities and grants awarded.
Key services
Publication of forecast grant opportunities, Publication of current grant opportunities, Publication of grant awards and decisions, User registration and login for grant application management, Help and information resources
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, New Relic monitoring, jQuery (implied by bundles)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by domain and scripts loaded via https)
  • CSRF token present in login forms

Analytics and tracking

Services
New Relic
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
New Relic
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is an official Australian Government grants information portal
  2. Content is accessible and well-structured with clear navigation
  3. No privacy or security policies explicitly linked on homepage but help section likely contains relevant info
  4. Login forms use CSRF tokens indicating some security awareness
  5. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly listed on homepage
  6. WHOIS data is unavailable due to privacy or query failure
  7. No signs of WAF or content blocking
  8. Uses New Relic for performance and error monitoring
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a standard web technology stack with JavaScript and monitoring via New Relic. The presence of CSRF tokens in forms indicates secure form handling practices. The site is mobile optimized and accessible, with a clear navigation structure. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. No specific CMS or hosting provider is identified. The site could benefit from enhanced security headers and improved privacy compliance features. Technical debt appears low, but modernization opportunities include adopting more explicit security and privacy standards and improving SEO metadata completeness.
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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