Skip to main content

Security report for grants.gov

Grants.gov · Government · United States

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Grants.gov is the official U.S. government portal that centralizes federal grant opportunities and application resources for organizations and entities. It holds a strong market position as the primary federal grants platform, offering comprehensive services including grant search, application submission, and educational resources. The website is well-branded, professionally designed, and targets organizations seeking federal funding. Technically, the site leverages modern frameworks such as the U.S. Web Design System and a headless CMS (Storyblok), ensuring excellent performance, accessibility, and mobile optimization. Security is robust with HTTPS, multiple security headers, and a published vulnerability disclosure policy, although DNSSEC is not enabled and cookie consent mechanisms are absent. Overall, the site demonstrates high business credibility and trustworthiness consistent with a government service.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of grants.gov. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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. 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';…

  2. 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

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

Keep watching grants.gov

This scan found 20 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
90
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
70

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

Grants.gov operates as an essential government service entity, providing centralized access to federal grant opportunities. Its competitive advantage lies in its official status, comprehensive resources, and integration capabilities for applicants and grantors. The business model is service-oriented, focusing on facilitating grant applications and compliance. The target customers are organizations eligible for federal funding. The site shows growth indicators through continuous content updates, system maintenance schedules, and active social media engagement. Partnerships with related government portals and a dedicated blog enhance its ecosystem. Strategic observations include the need to improve privacy compliance and incident response transparency to maintain trust and regulatory alignment.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, strong security headers, and session management features such as timeout warnings. The presence of a vulnerability disclosure policy indicates proactive security management. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected. However, the absence of DNSSEC and a security.txt file are areas for improvement. The lack of explicit incident response contact channels and cookie consent mechanisms may pose compliance risks, especially under GDPR. Overall, the security culture appears strong but could benefit from enhanced transparency and privacy controls.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement a cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and enhance user privacy transparency.
  3. Publish clear incident response contact information, including security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  4. Add a security.txt file to standardize vulnerability reporting and improve security communication.
  5. Consider publishing terms of service to clarify user rights and responsibilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Grants.gov
Description
Grants.gov is the official U.S. government website that provides a centralized location to find and apply for federal grant opportunities. It serves organizations and entities supporting government-funded programs and projects.
Key services
Federal grant search, Grant application submission, Applicant and grantor resources, System-to-system integration, Grant forms repository
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, USWDS (U.S. Web Design System), Google Tag Manager, Digital Analytics Program (DAP), YouTube embedded videos
Frameworks
USWDS
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
excellent
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ServerTransferProhibited domain status
  • Vulnerability disclosure policy published
  • Session timeout modal implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of security headers

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Digital Analytics Program (DAP)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager), Digital Analytics Program (DAP)
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Official US government grants portal with comprehensive resources.
  2. Strong security posture with HTTPS and security headers.
  3. No cookie consent mechanism detected, which may affect GDPR compliance.
  4. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found on the homepage.
  5. Use of modern USWDS framework and headless CMS Storyblok.
  6. Multiple embedded videos and rich content for user education.
  7. Social media presence on Twitter and YouTube with official accounts.
  8. No signs of suspicious or malicious content.
  9. Domain WHOIS privacy is enabled but justified for government use.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern technical stack including USWDS for design consistency and Storyblok as a headless CMS, enabling flexible content management. It uses Google Tag Manager and Digital Analytics Program scripts for analytics and performance monitoring. Hosting is via Amazon CloudFront CDN with Nginx web servers, contributing to fast load times and global availability. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, adhering to government standards. Technical risks are minimal, with opportunities to enhance DNS security and privacy compliance. The infrastructure supports scalability and robust user experience.
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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 70/100Medium27 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with grants.gov. 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 grants.gov.

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.